“We soon reach the limits of possible analysis based on simple observation 'by ear' or by our 'sense' of rhythm.”

Why she counted syllables instead of trusting impression alone · Essay, A Study in English Metrics

• Analysis
• Poetry
• Rhythm

“Scansion isolates, for the sake of analysis, the basic metrical units of verse—feet; the same analytical scrutiny must, I believe, be given to the basic phonetic units of speech.”

Words weighed as carefully as feet in a line · Essay, A Study in English Metrics

• Language
• Poetry
• Precision

“Is it necessary to say that one is of course all the time working 'by ear'—but by a reasoned and tested hearing?”

Ear and measurement treated as one discipline · Essay, A Study in English Metrics

• Perception
• Poetry
• Study

“It is my object in the present discussion to venture the suggestion that an important application of phonetics to metrical problems lies in the study of phonetic word-structure.”

The thesis of the technical work she ranked above her poems · Essay, A Study in English Metrics

• Analysis
• Language
• Poetry

“Let the story I was not able to tell be told.”

A charge to finish the work she would not live to complete · Reported last words to her nurse

• Mortality
• Storytelling
• Writing

“Nothing at all serious.”

Denial offered as courtesy while tuberculosis declared itself · Letter to a colleague, after her collapse

• Health
• Self Deception

“Pain not as bad as this writing looks and getting better.”

The handwriting itself became part of the joke and the report · Letter written during paralysis of her right side

• Courage
• Humour
• Pain

“I'll be back at work next year—see if I'm not.”

Will against a diagnosis that would not yield · Letter from Saranac Lake

• Determination
• Hope
• Work

“If it's chronic tuberculosis, why that's what it is, and I'm just going to go ahead, find a way of living that's as little invalidish as possible, get what I can out of things and let it go at that.”

A programme of acceptance without surrender · Letter, after learning she would not return to Smith

• Acceptance
• Health
• Resilience

“It isn't awfully bad, you know, though not what one would choose for a diversion.”

Flippant courage after a painful and unsuccessful treatment · Letter to Esther Lowenthal, after an attempt to collapse a lung

• Endurance
• Humour
• Suffering

“The days, truth to tell, are rather long. I'm getting on well, cough better and at least a little sleep o' nights.”

Courage dressed as a weather report from the sanatorium · Letter to Esther Lowenthal, Saranac Lake

• Endurance
• Health
• Patience

“I always feel like an idiot when I talk about symptoms.”

Embarrassment and reserve even while reporting tuberculosis · Letter to Esther Lowenthal, Saranac Lake

• Health
• Humour
• Privacy

“I hope what I said of my health didn't worry you. It was only to explain why I don't undertake more work right away.”

Care for her correspondents masking a failing body · Letter

• Care
• Health
• Work

“What a bother health is.”

Typical understatement of the illness that would cut her life short · Letter

• Difficulty
• Health

“Oh dear! Isn't it all funny! It's what comes of being born a Crapsey.”

Family humour in the face of a small disappointment · Letter to her parents

• Character
• Family
• Humour

“Don't be disturbed if you don't know much what prosody is. Hardly anyone does.”

A dry scholar's joke about the obscurity of the science she treated as her life's work · Letter to her parents

• Learning
• Poetry
• Scholarship

“It is brief, but it has taken a long time.”

On the rigorous craft and time required to distill thoughts into minimal verse · Letters and biographical accounts, c. 1914

• Craft
• Time
• Writing

“I'm so off on cinquains. I think they're quite lovely. They're so brief.”

Reflecting on her creation and fondness for the concise five-line poetic form · Letter to Esther Lowenthal, 1914

• Creation
• Form
• Poetry

“I have always felt that poetry should be written with a clear, concise focus, capturing a single vivid image or thought without unnecessary adornment.”

Reflecting her preference for spare, highly concentrated verse forms · Letters and personal notes

• Form
• Poetry
• Simplicity