SIR,—What does Mr. Dyson think words mean? 'Milton's dislodgment, in
the last decade, after nis two centuries of predominance, was effected with remarkably little fuss': that's what the Doctor wrote, recording not the opinion of the Scrutineers but a matter of fact—poets no longer wrote, Miltonically, like Tennyson and Arnold; Eliot, Pound and Hop- kins were effecting a different kind of poetry (in Leavis's words, 'making a new kind of poetry pos- sible'). Must we continue to be plagued by the Dysons of the world misunderstanding what a man actually writes?.
As for the Doctor's influence in 'good schools and colleges', it is certainly apparent. But that the teachers are 'under the influence' unhappily matters leSs than that many of the Examining Boards clearly are not. The Northern Board is still offering only an expen- sive (9s. 6d. a copy) alternative to Matthew Arnold for '0' Level 1962; and its compulsory alternative to Milton for 'A' Level 1963 is Tennyson: Thus, teachers notwithstanding, is the orthodoxy Dr. Leavis complains of authorised and perpetuated.— Yours faithfully,
ARTHUR CAPFY
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