How should we like it were stars to burn With a passion for us we could not return? If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

There has been a vast output of critical studies in contemporary poetry, some of them first rate, but I do not think that , as a rule, a poet should read them.

Choice of attention - to pay attention to this and ignore that - is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences, whatever they may be.

It is a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.

Private faces in public places Are wiser and nicer Than public faces in private places.

When someone between twenty and forty says, apropos of a work of art, 'I know what I like,' he is really saying 'I have no taste of my own but accept the taste of my cultural milieu.