“The critics of the magazines are the proper persons to apply to, and they are commonly fair enough.”

Deflecting requests for literary criticism towards professional reviewers · Letter, December 4, 1886

• Criticism
• Professionalism
• Writing

“The verses might have merit, but such false rhyming would frighten them, and prevent their doing justice to the lines that held them.”

A precise explanation of how technical faults can obscure genuine poetic merit · Letter to Mrs E. S. Sinclair, September 16, 1882

• Poetry
• Precision
• Writing

“I did, every one of them.”

A dryly humorous postscript revealing that despite his criticism he had actually read every poem · Letter concerning young poets, December 4, 1886

• Humour
• Poetry
• Reading