“How dreary the state and rank of your second-best great poet, enthroned in dismal glory on the less frequented slopes of Parnassus!”

Observing that formal reputation may bring less affection than intimate readership · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Fame
• Poetry
• Solitude

“Each of us also has some private niche, some inconsiderable intimate shrine, for the poet no one praises, who is all the more our own.”

Celebrating the private affection readers form for poets overlooked by wider fame · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Fame
• Friendship
• Poetry

“I have marked in red the days on which I discovered certain poets, most certainly minor, who died centuries ago.”

Remembering the lasting joy of discovering neglected voices from the past · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Joy
• Memory
• Poetry

“But if I see the necessary grace that they possess, how clearly, alas! do I perceive the magnificent qualities they lack!”

Balancing confidence in her work with an unsparing awareness of its limitations · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Art
• Poetry
• Truth

“I send forth this little book with scant expectance of immediate success.”

Expressing modest expectations while entrusting her work to future readers · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Fame
• Hope
• Poetry

“The chapel of the Minor Poet may be too small to admit the crowd; it may be thronged when three or four are gathered together. None the less, it has its use and place.”

Celebrating the intimate bond between lesser-known poets and their devoted readers · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Fame
• Friendship
• Poetry

“We cannot all be great poets; but the humblest, if they be sincere, may give a genuine pleasure.”

Affirming that honest modest work can possess lasting value without achieving greatness · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Joy
• Poetry
• Truth

“Yet, like all poets, I trust these little songs may find an audience to-morrow: they have that saving virtue of sincerity which is the salt of Art.”

Placing faith in sincerity and in the possibility of recognition by future readers · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Hope
• Poetry
• Truth

“I have always thought that one should write poetry only as one dies; that is to say, at the last extremity and when it is impossible to do otherwise.”

Presenting poetry as an urgent expression born of emotional necessity · Preface to her Collected Poems (1902)

• Mortality
• Poetry