“There cannot be a greater error than to suppose that the poet does not feel what he writes.”

Rejecting the idea that poetic emotion is merely manufactured · Essay, On the Character of Mrs. Hemans's Writings

• Emotion
• Poetry
• Writing

“I should almost define poetry to be the necessity of feeling strongly in the first instance, and the as strong necessity of confiding in the second.”

Presenting poetry as both intense feeling and the urge to communicate it · Essay, On the Character of Mrs. Hemans's Writings

• Emotion
• Poetry
• Writing

“Time is the great leveller, but he is also the sanctifier and the beautifier.”

Recognising how time both erases distinctions and transforms memory · Essay, The Criticism of Chateaubriand

• Change
• Memory
• Time