“It is in Music, perhaps, that the soul most nearly attains the great end for which, when inspired by the Poetic Sentiment, it struggles — the creation of supernal Beauty.”

Presenting music as the soul’s closest approach to transcendent beauty · Essay on poetics, published 1850

• Beauty
• Music
• Poetry

“It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.”

Imagining earthly life as a temporary state viewed differently after death · Published marginal notes, 1849

• Death
• Faith
• Mortality

“I would define, in brief, the Poetry of words as the Rhythmical Creation of Beauty.”

Describing poetry as beauty shaped through language and rhythm · Essay, The Poetic Principle

• Beauty
• Music
• Poetry