For while the subjects of poetry are few and recurrent, the moods of man are infinitely various and unstable. It is the same in all arts.

But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.

It is commonly asserted and accepted that Paradise Lost is among the two or three greatest English poems; it may justly be taken as the type of supreme poetic achievement in our literature.

Grant us the wil1 to fashion as we feel, Grant us the strength to labor as we know, Grant us the purpose, ribbed and edged with steel, To strike the blow.

This be my pilgrimage and goal Daily to march and find The secret phrases of the soul, The evangels of the mind.

It should here be added that poetry habitually takes the form of verse.

To know anything of a poet but his poetry is, so far as the poetry is concerned, to know something that may be entertaining, even delightful, but is certainly inessential.