Book excerpt: Richard Hoffpauir argues that the works of the best poets have found ways of not capitulating to contemporary reality and outlines the terms of the debate by setting the weaknesses of Yeats against the strenghts of Hardy. Subsequent chapters discuss the nature poetry of Edward thomas; the war poetry of Graves, Blunden, and Gurney; the love poetry of Bridges, Lawrence, and Graves; and the political and social verse of Rickword, Daryush, Betjeman, and Larkin.