“If you were to go to India and look with an unprejudiced eye, you would see that the system of Government is rotten to the core.”

A strikingly early expression of his opposition to injustice under British rule in India · Letter to Laurence Binyon, October 1887

• Justice
• Politics
• Truth

“I am still writing verse, but have done nothing worthy to send you... I sincerely doubt whether I should ever write a poem of any length.”

A revealing moment of artistic self-doubt from a poet still developing his voice · Letter to Laurence Binyon, Oxford period

• Humility
• Poetry
• Writing

“It is one of my great aims to inform and persuade people on that subject and I should reproach myself if I neglected this occasion.”

Showing his sense of responsibility to explain India's circumstances to an English audience · Letter to Laurence Binyon, Oxford period

• Duty
• Politics
• Writing