“Where the narrative is highly colored by emotion, the ballad merges into the lyric. It is difficult here to draw the line of distinction.”

Recognising how literary forms naturally overlap when narrative becomes intensely emotional · Introduction to Ballad Book

• Criticism
• Emotion
• Poetry

“Even so comparatively small a group as that comprehended within this volume shows how truly the ballad is the parent stock of all other poetic varieties.”

Presenting the traditional ballad as a foundation from which many poetic forms developed · Introduction to Ballad Book

• Literature
• Poetry
• Tradition

“Where Spanish life is most stripped of material prosperity, it seems most to abound in suggestions of romance.”

Contrasting material poverty with the imaginative richness she encountered in everyday life · Spanish Highways and Byways

• Culture
• Imagination
• Simplicity

“It is beautiful to see out of what scant allowance of that which we call well-being, may be evolved wisdom and joy, poetry and religion.”

Observing that material scarcity need not prevent richness of spirit and imagination · Spanish Highways and Byways

• Joy
• Poetry
• Wisdom

“After all, it is easier to adapt yourself to foreign ways than to adapt them to you.”

A concise lesson in humility and flexibility while encountering another culture · From Gretna Green to Land's End

• Change
• Culture
• Humility

“There is no security on this whirring planet where pain is pain, and loss is loss, but where, for our deepest of consolation, though it involves our keenest of grief, love is always love.”

Finding enduring consolation in love despite the certainty of suffering and loss · Sigurd Our Golden Collie and Other Comrades of the Road

• Consolation
• Grief
• Love

“Through Sigurd our circle of fellowship was widened for all time.”

Reflecting on how companionship can enlarge one's sense of fellowship · Sigurd Our Golden Collie and Other Comrades of the Road

• Animals
• Community
• Friendship

“And still I would almost rather meet a new dog than a new poet.”

A playful admission of how deeply she valued the companionship of animals · Sigurd Our Golden Collie and Other Comrades of the Road

• Animals
• Friendship
• Humour

“I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.”

Recalling the experience that inspired her vision of America's landscape · Recollection of Pikes Peak, 1893

• Joy
• Nature
• Wonder

“Though born and bred in the Republican camp, I cannot bear their betrayal of Mr. Wilson and their rejection of the League of Nations, our one hope of peace on earth.”

Putting the hope of international peace above longstanding party loyalty · Political statement, 1924

• Peace
• Politics
• Principle

“I always thought the fringe had the best of it. I don't think I mind not being woven in.”

A witty defence of independence from conventional expectations · Conversation, 1910

• Convention
• Independence
• Wit

“Of course I want to come to you, very much as I want to come to Heaven.”

An unusually candid statement of affection and longing · Letter to Katharine Coman, 1891

• Faith
• Longing
• Love

“It was never very possible to leave Wellesley, because so many love-anchors held me there.”

Describing the human attachments that made a place feel inseparable from home · Letter to Katharine Coman, 1891

• Community
• Home
• Love

“You are always in my heart and in my longings.”

A direct expression of enduring attachment across separation · Letter to Katharine Coman, 1893

• Longing
• Love

“One day, near the close of June, 1893, I was standing on the summit of Pikes Peak.”

Recalling the landscape and moment that inspired her best-known patriotic poem · Prose account of the writing of America the Beautiful

• Beauty
• Memory
• Nature