The only real evidence that any critic may bring before his gaze is the finished poem.

We know the particular poem, not what it says that we can restate.

Poets, in their way, are practical men; they are interested in results.

Dramatic experience is not logical; it may be subdued to the kind of coherence that we indicate when we speak, in criticism, of form.

At twelve I was determined to shoot only For honor; at twenty not to shoot at all; I know at thirty-three that one must shoot As often as one gets the rare chance - In killing there is more than commentary.

According to its doctors, my one intransigent desire is to have been a Confederate general, and because I could not or would not become anything else, I set up for poet and beg an to invent fictions about the personal ambitions that my society has no use for.

Other psychological theories say a good deal about compensation.