A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

He was, as every truly great poet has ever been, a good man; but finding it impossible to realize his own aspirations, either in religion or politics, or society, he gave up his heart to the living spirit and light within him, and avenged himself on the world by enriching it with this record of his own transcendental ideal.

Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain

Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.

The Knight's bones are dust, / And his good sword rust; - / His soul is with the saints, I trust.

Those who best know human nature will acknowledge most fully what a strength light hearted nonsense give to a hard working man