I have never been a prolific songwriter, not because I have anything against the medium, but more because I have great difficulty in finding poems that I could effectively respond to, much as I often like and admire them. This may seem strange when one thinks of the profusion of lyric poetry that exists in English. But the poems that lend themselves to music have so often already been used many times as far as poets of the past are concerned, and those of today present considerable difficulty. Nevertheless I have from time to time come across poems that I felt I could and really wanted to set; and these, spread over nearly fifty years, add up to a fair number. I think many composers feel, as I do, disinclined to set certain texts that they value very highly. Very well-known poetry of the past is perhaps best left alone. One has only to think what a composer has to do to a poem; he has to destroy or at best modify its natural rhythm – he cannot possibly adhere to its actual metre. He then has to translate it into another medium.