Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art; the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence.

The critic's first labor is the task of distinguishing between men, as history and their works display them, and the ideals which one and another have conspired to urge upon his acceptance.

Men are egotists, and not all tolerant of one man's selfhood; they do not always deem the amities elective.

Progress comes by experiment, and this from ennui that leads to voyages, wars, revolutions, and plainly to change in the arts of expression; that cries out to the imagination, and is the nurse of the invention whereof we term necessity the mother.

The imagination never dies.

Poetry is an art, and chief of the fine art; the easiest to dabble in, the hardest in which to reach true excellence.

Alas, by what rude fate Our lives, like ships at sea, an instant meet, Then part forever on their courses fleet.