“I'm coming round soon for a good long gam.”

A characteristically Nantucket expression for a long friendly conversation · Conversation, recalled by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

• Communication
• Friendship

“All right, but that is not Poetry with a big P, and that is the only kind that should be published. And there is mighty little of it.”

Expresses Macy's unusually severe standards for his own poetry and for publication · Conversation, recalled by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

• Criticism
• Humility
• Poetry

“Some of them have and some of them haven't.”

A wounded Macy's dry reply when asked whether the men in the hospital had arms · Gettysburg anecdote, recorded by William Alfred Hovey in Introduction to Poems (1905)

• Courage
• Humour
• War