“Poetry was the mental rattle that awakened the attention of intellect in the infancy of civil society: but for the maturity of mind to make a serious business of the playthings of its childhood, is as absurd as for a full-grown man to rub his gums with coral, and cry to be charmed to sleep by the jingle of silver bells.”

Argues that poetry belongs to society's childhood and has no place in mature intellect · Essay, The Four Ages of Poetry (1820)

• Childhood
• Intellect
• Poetry

“The poetry of your Adonais is very beautiful; but when you write you never think of your audience. The number who understand you, and sympathise with you, is very small.”

Candid critique of Shelley's obscurity despite praising the elegy · Letter to Percy Bysshe Shelley (c. 1821)

• Audience
• Criticism
• Poetry

“As to writing poetry, or doing anything else that is rational in this floating Inferno, it is almost next to a moral impossibility.”

Expresses frustration at naval life blocking literary work · Letter from HMS Venerable (1809)

• Frustration
• Poetry
• Writing