SENSE AND POETRY
- [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.} SIIL—May I offer a 'short appendix to Mr. I. M. Parsons' review of Mr. John Sparrow's Sense and Poetry?
A list of the misquotations in Mr. Sparrow's book seems to .indicate a rather superficial acquaintance with the works he -criticizes. On page 41, he arbitrarily alters the form of a poem by Mr. Tessimond, on page 47 he misquotes Mr. Eliot (rather a reflection on Mr. Sparrow's ear- this), on page 48 he again misquotes Mr. Eliot, on page 65 he misquotes Mr. Empson. This is the most damaging example, for he has made con- venient nonsense of a quite Lucid passage. One page Si he misquotes Miss Sitwell; 'on page 133 Miss Sitwell, on page 144 Mr. Eliot again, on' page 149-Mr. Auden, on page 150 Mr. Auden, and On page 151 Mr.riAuden. These last slips are not very important, though in a critic discourteous, but on page 147 one-detects a definite misrepresentation. To exhibit the "-rambling and disconnected" nature of Mr. Auden's work, Mr. Sparrow has run together, parted only by the traditional three stops, two prose passages separated in the text by more than a page and by a complete sectional break.
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