“Poetry is, by its very derivation, making, not feeling.”

Insisting that poetry depends on craft rather than emotion alone · Gathered Leaves, letters and diaries, 1897–1907

• Art
• Poetry

“There are some words that are like a flight of steps that end in mid-air, and there is nothing but the sky above them.”

Describing language that carries thought to the edge of the unsayable · Gathered Leaves, letters and diaries, 1897–1907

• Poetry
• Truth

“Nothing has such deadly power to corrupt as unalloyed virtue.”

A paradoxical warning against virtue untouched by humility or complexity · Gathered Leaves, letters and diaries, 1897–1907

• Truth