“It is impossible for me to express the supreme glow of delight that your approval has afforded me. [...] really I felt all my hair creep on my head, and stand upright like a bottle brush.”

Describing the physical thrill of receiving praise from a celebrated contemporary · Letter to Lord Byron, 7 March 1812

• Ambition
• Poetry
• Praise

“My manner of composing poetry is very different, and, I believe, much more singular. Let the piece be of what length it will, I compose and correct it wholly in my mind, or on a slate, ere ever I put pen to paper; and then I write it down as fast as the A, B, C. When once it is written, it remains in that state; it being with the utmost difficulty that I can be brought to alter one syllable.”

Describing a method of composition shaped by the limited spare time of a working shepherd · Autobiographical Memoir

• Craft
• Poetry
• Writing

“A shepherd may be a very able, trusty, and good shepherd, without a sweetheart—better, perhaps, than with one. But what is he without his dog?”

On the indispensable partnership between shepherd and dog · Writings on shepherding

• Animals
• Companionship
• Work