“Numberless poetical trifles of the same kind have occurred to him, when perhaps, in his solitary rambles, he has been chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy; but they have been forgotten as he left the places which gave rise to them.”

Memory and place decide which fleeting thoughts survive as verse · Preface to the Sonnets, 1805

• Memory
• Solitude
• Writing

“The objects of artificial life are, per se, less fitted for the purposes of poetry than those of nature, and than the passions of the human heart.”

His summary of why satires of manners stand below nature and passion · Writings in the Pope controversy

• Art
• Nature
• Poetry

“I thought nothing about the strict Italian model; the verses naturally flowed in unpremeditated harmony, as my ear directed.”

He privileges ear and unity of feeling over inherited sonnet rules · Introduction, Scenes and Shadows of Days Departed, 1837

• Music
• Originality
• Poetry