Sometime in 1971 and 1972, Graves wrote ‘Unless’ which contains the lines:
‘How can I hope to retrieve lost memory,/ Lost pride and lost motion.’
By this time his health was deteriorating, with increased memory loss, and a growing inability to concentrate on any long term projects.
In between further thoughts on poets and poetry, his Difficult Questions, Easy Answers tackled notions of genius and obscenity, and answers (among others) to the significance of the Pentagram of Isis, the Sufic Chequer Board, and the connection and distinction between Goddesses and Obosoms.
Except for poetry, this was Graves’s last major work.