Don’t gnash your teeth and expect the public to take it as a sign of force and insight.
Don’t forget that prosody is derived from poetry, not poetry from prosody.
Don’t waste your time trying to squeeze exceptions into the rule. Remember that exceptions in poetry, as in music, are the variations that give life.
Don’t measure English poetry by English poetic standards alone. Consider the sources of English poetry, and don’t begin with Chaucer, or stop with Tennyson.
Don’t think that English or American poetry may not assimilate as much new beauty and richness from foreign sources in the future as it has in the past.
Don’t consider rhyme as the be-all and end-all of poetry. Rhyme is sometimes as beautiful as the reflection of trees in water; it is sometimes as monotonous as a stitch in time.
Don’t substitute vituperation for the “critique raisonné”—almost an unknown quantity in this country.
Don’t look first at the publisher’s imprint.
Don’t cling to convictions that you fear to have upset.
Don’t, because you fail to share the convictions of a fellow critic, think that he is a bigger fool than you are—unless you can prove it.