Poetry is often generations in advance of the thought of its time.

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

Perhaps this very instant is your time.

... 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.

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.

Up from the bronze, I saw Water without a flaw Rush to its rest in air Reach to its rest, and fall.

I hope that one or two immortal lyrics will come out of all this tumbling around.