A Man May Devote Himself

Ignorance Seldom Vaults Into Knowledge, But Passes Into It Through An Intermediate State Of Obscurity, Even As Night Into Day Through Twilight.

Creation Rather Than Painting, Or If Painting, Yet Such, And With Such Co-presence Of The Whole Picture Flash'd At Once Upon The Eye, As The Sun Paints In A Camera Obscura. (describing His Poetic Ideal, 1817)

Tranquillity! Thou Better Name Than All The Family Of Fame.

We Have No Adequate Conception Of The Perfection Of The Ancient Tragic Dance. The Pleasure Which The Greeks Received From It Had For Its Basis Difference; & The More Unfit The Vehicle, The More Lively Was The Curiosity & Intense The Delights At Seeing The Difficulty Overcome.

Not The Poem Which We Have Read , But That To Which We Return , With The Greatest Pleasure, Possesses The Genuine Power, And Claims The Name Of Essential Poetry .