“The poetic quality is not marshal'd in rhyme or uniformity, or abstract addresses to things, nor in melancholy complaints or good precepts, but is the life of these and much else, and is in the soul.”

Locating poetry in inner life rather than formal technique · Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855

• Art
• Poetry

“The inmost secrets of art sleep with the twain.”

Locating artistic depth in the balance of pride and sympathy · Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855

• Art
• Truth

“Then the qualities, almost emotional, palpably artistic, heroic, of a tree; so innocent and harmless, yet so savage. It is, yet says nothing.”

Admiring the silent sufficiency of a living tree · Specimen Days, The Lesson of a Tree

• Nature
• Solitude