A STUDY OF POETRY

by
BLISS PERRY

_Professor of English Literature in Harvard University_

Author of "A STUDY OF PROSE FICTION," "WALT WHITMAN,"
"THE AMERICAN MIND," etc.



TO

M. S. P.



PREFACE

The method of studying poetry which I have followed in this book was
sketched some years ago in my chapter on "Poetry" in _Counsel Upon the
Reading of Books_. My confidence that the genetic method is the natural
way of approaching the subject has been shared by many lovers of poetry.
I hope, however, that I have not allowed my insistence upon the threefold
process of "impression, transforming imagination, and expression" to
harden into a set formula. Formulas have a certain dangerous usefulness
for critics and teachers, but they are a very small part of one's training
in the appreciation of poetry.