“The feelings and the imagination, when skilfully touched, act…” — William Cullen Bryant | V2Melody

“The feelings and the imagination, when skilfully touched, act reciprocally on each other.”

Showing how emotion and imagination strengthen one another · Lecture, On the Nature of Poetry, 1825–26

William Cullen Bryant

About William Cullen Bryant

William Cullen Bryant

3 November 1794–12 June 1878

William Cullen Bryant was born on 3 November 1794 in the rural hill town of Cummington, Massachusetts, and died in New York City on 12 June 1878. During his unusually long life, he became several things at once: one of the earliest American poets to command serious respect at home and abroad, a formidable editor whose…

More by William Cullen Bryant

Poems by William Cullen Bryant

More remarks by William Cullen Bryant

“Eloquence is the poetry of prose; poetry is the eloquence of verse.”

Neatly linking expressive prose and verse through eloquence · Lecture, On the Nature of Poetry, 1825–26

“Poetry is that art which selects and arranges the symbols of thought in such a manner as to excite it the most powerfully and delightfully.”

Describing poetry as the deliberate shaping of thought into imaginative experience · Lecture, On the Nature of Poetry, 1825–26

“The right to discuss freely and openly, by speech, by the pen, by the press, all political questions, and to examine and animadvert upon all political institutions, is a right so clear and certain.”

Defending open political discussion as a fundamental liberty · Editorial, The Death of Lovejoy, 18 November 1837