“Poetry begins, I dare say, with a savage beating a drum in the jungle, and it retains that essential of percussion and rhythm.”

Locating the origins of poetry in rhythm and bodily sound · Lecture series, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism

• Music
• Poetry

“The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.”

Describing artistic failure as a misplaced balance between instinct and deliberate craft · Essay, Tradition and the Individual Talent

• Art
• Poetry

“Some can absorb knowledge, the more tardy must sweat for it.”

Acknowledging that learning comes naturally to some and through labour to others · Essay, Tradition and the Individual Talent

• Poetry
• Truth