“I have been always fond of nature and solitude, and they have been my chief delight.”

Capturing the restorative force of the natural world and withdrawal from society · Autobiographical writing

• Nature
• Solitude

“I found the poems in the fields and only wrote them down.”

Expressing his sense that poetry was discovered in lived experience rather than imposed upon it; the precise source is uncertain · Commonly attributed remark

• Nature
• Poetry

“I long to be what I was when I was a boy.”

Expressing a poignant desire to recover the freedom and identity of childhood · Letter or asylum writing, as commonly attributed

• Childhood
• Memory