It is almost impossible for the poetess, once laurelled, to take off the crown for good or to reject values and taste of those who tender it.

All art, in spite of the struggles of some critics to prove otherwise, is based on emotion and projects emotion.

The measured blood beats out the year's delay.

It is not possible, for a poet, writing in any language, to protect himself from the tragic elements in human life.... [ellipsis in source] Illness, old age, and death--subjects as ancient as humanity--these are the subjects that the poet must speak of very nearly from the first moment that he begins to speak.

Your work is carved out of agony as a statue is carved out of marble.

... how much of our inner substance is it good for us to give to public griefs? The whole modern tendency to agonize over the suffering of the entire globe is surely something new.

The art of one period cannot be approached through the attitudes (emotional or intellectual) of another.