“Even in phraseology they seldom talk about one thing in terms of another, but are able enough and sure enough as artists to make the ultimately exact terms become the beautiful terms.”

Valuing precision itself as a source of poetic beauty · Essay, Poetry and Culture, introduction to The Jade Mountain (1929)

• Beauty
• Poetry
• Truth

“It will so continue to be, in spite of the apparent shocks given it by the noises of modern commerce and science and jazz.”

Affirming poetry's resilience amid the pressures and distractions of modern life · Essay, Poetry and Culture, introduction to The Jade Mountain (1929)

• Hope
• Poetry
• Time

“The discovery which has largely undone my previous convictions as to the way of writing poetry has rather to do with use of substance than with turns of expression.”

Explaining how Chinese poetry changed his priorities from ornament towards substance · Essay, Poetry and Culture, introduction to The Jade Mountain (1929)

• Art
• Poetry
• Truth