“My good or ill stars ordained me to be a knight errant in the fairy fields of poetry.”

Playful acceptance of a literary vocation over a more practical career · Self-description recorded in biographical accounts

• Adventure
• Poetry
• Vocation

“The town may da-da-damn me as a poet, but they sing my songs for all that.”

Defiant good humour about popular success despite critical scorn, noting his stammer · Attributed conversational remark (widely recorded by contemporaries and later biographers)

• Fame
• Poetry
• Wit