The history of English poetry in the twentieth century tends of support the frequent remark that poetry is essentially a private art form. Certainly, ppets are often influenced by other poets, and those who live through the same social and political events may well share a common outlook on them but in the end each poet works as a private and separate person who makes his or her own world from his or her own deep concerns. Necessarily, therefore, the story of English poetry in the twentieth century is very much a story of individual figures.