In this selection of essays by the poet William Empson (1906-1984), which includes some previously unpublished work, he dwells on subjects as diverse as poetry, fiction, epic, language and rhyme; there are interpretations of Rochester, Wordsworth, Auden, Dylan Thomas, Joyce, Kafka and others; and essays on death and Buddhism.

Reprint of the ed. published by New Directions, Norfolk, Conn. in 1961.