“Poetry is the image of man and nature.”

a compact statement of poetry's twin subjects · Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802

• Nature
• Poetry

“When a man pushes off in his little boat into the great seas of Infinity and Eternity, it surely signifies little how long he is kept in sight by watchers from the shore.”

Setting earthly reputation against the larger perspective of death and eternity · Conversation, recollected by Aubrey de Vere

• Fame
• Mortality
• Time

“The feeling therein developed gives importance to the action and situation, and not the action and situation to the feeling.”

Arguing that genuine feeling should animate poetic events · Preface to Lyrical Ballads, 1802

• Art
• Poetry