This essay is written by T.S. Elliot (1888-1965). It was originally written as one of a series of talks broadcast to Germany after World War II.

Looking at the layout of the text, we can noticed it's arranged to three paragraphs, dealing each one with different statements.

Right from the first one, Eliot develops a primarily thesis: in his opinion the English language is the richest for poetry.

Going on with his argumentation, he focuses the attention only on what he wants to analyse and for this reason he qualifies the precedent point: this opinion doesn't mean England has produced the greatest poetsor amount of poetry, however English is the richest language for poetry because it has the largest vocabulary. In order to convince the reader and to support his idea, Eliot gives some exaples. As a matter of fact he says this richness is the result of the variety of elements of which English is made of.: first there is the Germanic fundation, but also Scandinavian and the Norman French elements, therefore Latin words took part and at last but not least the Celtic culture. In addition to this point Eliot explains a further clarification providing moreover some data: as a result all these influences, English language becames important also in its rhythmic variety thanks to Saxon verse, Norman French and Welsh metrical and then the study of Latin and Greek.

Caming at the scecond paragraph, althogh Eliot enphatises that English is a good language for poetry becouse of ist linguistic sources, he presents another statements: England has not necessary produced the greatest poets. As the first paragraphs, the writer reiforces his arguments using examples. He afferms it is generally thought that the greates peoples excel in one art, for example Italy and Frace excel in painting, Germany in music and England in poetry. However Eliot considers this idea not correct because at first no art has been the exlusive possession of country in Europe and secondly there have been periods in which some other country than England has taken lead in poetry. In order to refuse again that point, Eliot also adds that a Nation which leads in a particular art form in a particular period doesn't necessary produce great artists (he also gives the exaple of Goethe, one of the most important man for poetry's history).

In the last paragraph the essayist draws his conclusions: no european nation would have accomplished what it has, as far as culture is concerned, if other countries had not developed the same art forms. Therefore he also mantains that the ability of european literature to renew itself depends on its command to go back and learn from its own sources and ist quality to receive and assimilate influences from abroad.