“It so happens that this energy, next to the poetic energy, is the most impressive and satisfying of all mental activities, and while poetry may exist independently of it, the fact remains that it very rarely does so.”

Valuing formal organisation as poetry’s closest creative companion · Essay, The Lyric, Lyric Forms

• Art
• Poetry

“The answer in itself now makes a large and distinguished literature to which, full as it is of keen intelligence and even of constructive vision, we can return with unstaling pleasure.”

Celebrating the enduring pleasure of thoughtful debate about poetry · Essay, The Lyric, What Is Poetry

• Art
• Joy
• Poetry

“The very poets themselves, it is true, lending their wits to the debate, have left the answer incomplete, as it must—not in the least unhappily—always remain.”

Treating poetry’s mystery as fruitful rather than frustrating · Essay, The Lyric, What Is Poetry

• Poetry
• Truth