New Bearings in English Poetry

New Bearings in English Poetry is a 1932 work by English literary critic F.R. Leavis. In this book, Leavis critiques late Victorian poetry and champions the importance of poets like T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He emphasizes the value of wit and intellectual play over the sensuousness characteristic of late Romantic poetry. Leavis's critical approach, which he developed further in his journal Scrutiny, stressed that literature should be closely tied to a critique of life, with critics assessing works based on the moral standing of both the author and society. T.S. Eliot's poetic experiments significantly influenced English poetry, revitalizing its diction, style, and versification.12