The relationship between poetry and politics has always been complex and difficult; in this century the complexity and difficulty has been given a new dimension by the emergence of powerful, organized Communist Parties. It is no longer possible for the radical or even revolutionary writer to be merely one of a loose front of like-minded individuals, linked together by a common aim or a common style of action. He has had to take up a standpoint which may be judged, to a considerable degree, by the standards of a political party which insists on bonds of organization and discipline. Shelley’s legislators necessarily look somewhat abstract in the face of the concrete legislators of the Communist Party.