“It is America's opportunity to lay the foundations for a new flowering of English verse, and to lay them as broad as they are strong.”

Vision for American contribution to English poetry · Preface to Irradiations; Sand and Spray, 1915

• America
• Opportunity
• Poetry

“Poetry merely descriptive of nature, however vivid, no longer seems enough for me, there has to be added to it, the human judgement, the human evaluation.”

Shift from pure description toward human meaning · Autobiography, Life is My Song, 1937

• Judgement
• Nature
• Poetry

“It is time to create something new. It is time to strip poetry of meaningless tatters of form, and to clothe her in new, suitable garments.”

Call for renewal of poetic form · Preface to Irradiations; Sand and Spray, 1915

• Form
• Innovation
• Poetry