"Perhaps the chief cause which has retarded the progress of poetry in America, is the want of that exclusive cultivation, which so noble a branch of literature would seem to require. Few here think of relying upon the exertion of poetic talent for a livelihood, and of making literature the profession of life. The bar or the pulpit claims the greater part of the scholar's existence, and poetry is made its pastime."

Source: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, J. D. McClatchy (2000). “Poems and Other Writings”, p.794, Library of America