“That Poesy should be as pervial as oratory, and plainness her special ornament, were the plain way to barbarism.”

Defending density and difficulty in poetry against simple clarity · Preface to Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

• Art
• Clarity
• Poetry

“The profane multitude I hate, and only consecrate my strange poems to those searching spirits whom learning hath made noble, and nobility sacred.”

On writing for a learned elite rather than the common reader · Preface to Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

• Nobility
• Poetry
• Readers

“Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity but be dense with meaning, something to be chewed and digested.”

On the proper density of poetic language · Preface to Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

• Language
• Meaning
• Poetry