All history is modern history.

A poet looks at the world as a man looks at a woman.

Poetry is a purging of the world's poverty and change and evil and death. It is a present perfecting, a satisfaction in the irremediable poverty of life.

A poem should be a part of one's sense of life.

Actions o' th' last age are like almanacks o' th' last year.

We must not confuse the present with the past. With regard to the past, no further action is possible. There have been war, plague, scandal, and treason, and t…

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.