“England is the modern Carthage; the love of gold, the last corruption of man, pervades the whole state from the centre to the extremities.”

Denunciation of commercial greed as national decay · Letter (1809)

• Corruption
• England
• Greed

“A poet in our time is a semi-barbarian in a civilized community.”

A sharp criticism of poets who idealise the past and resist the habits of modern society · Essay, The Four Ages of Poetry

• Civilization
• Criticism
• Poetry

“After her death in 1833 he maintained he wrote nothing of value, as his heart was not in his work.”

Acknowledges loss of creative drive following maternal influence and criticism · Reported remark after his mother's death

• Loss
• Motherhood
• Writing