“The fearless fresh living work you describe, is the only Poem to be undertaken now by you or anyone that is a Poet at all.”

Urging poetry to engage courageously with living experience rather than inherited convention · Letter to Elizabeth Barrett, 12 March 1845

• Courage
• Originality
• Poetry

“One of these days I shall describe a country I have seen in my soul only, fruits, flowers, birds and all.”

Asserting the imagination's ability to create landscapes independent of direct experience · Letter to Elizabeth Barrett, 16 April 1845

• Imagination
• Nature
• Writing

“I believe the fault comes from a too-sweet sense of the freedom of being true with you, telling you all, hiding nothing.”

Connecting intimacy with the freedom to speak without concealment · Letter to Elizabeth Barrett, 15 June 1846

• Communication
• Freedom
• Truth