17 AUGUST 1951, Page 15

44 Crisis in English Poetry" Sut,—Mr. Richard Murphy, in his

interesting criticism of my book Crisis in English Poetry, published in the Spectator of July 27th, makes a mis- statement which should be corrected. He writes that, in this book, I assume that "Western civilisation is doomed." 1 wish to point out that, although I stress certain grave defects in -Western civilisation, there is nothing in my book which justifies Mr. Murphy's assertion. On the contrary, if he does me the honour of re-reading my concluding chapter; he will see that I expressly allude there to the possibility, that ." the class-