Aurora, from Tithonus' saffron bed

If some gentlemen are resolved that blank verse shall be prose, they have my free leave to enjoy their saying, provided I may have theirs to think they mean nothing by it, unless they can prove that rhyme is essential to metre; …

However poetry may have been dishonoured by the follies of some and the vices of others, the abuse or corruption of the best things being always the worst, it will notwithstanding be ever regarded, as it ever has been, by the wisest and …

The art and triumph of poetry are in nothing more seen and felt than in moving the passions.

He who says he values no translation of this or that poem because he understands the original, has indeed no true relish, that is, in effect, no true understanding of either.

Poetry itself being the music of thoughts and words, as music is the poetry of sounds.

Of mine the world will and ought to be judge, whatever I say or think, and its judgment in these matters is never erroneous.