Every poem should remind the reader that they are going to die.

Yet, mad am I not — and very surely do I not dream.

Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.

The unity of effect or impression is a point of the greatest importance. It is clear, moreover, that this unity cannot be thoroughly preserved in productions whose perusal cannot be completed at one sitting.

And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave.

The world is a great ocean, upon which we encounter more tempestuous storms than calms.

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.