The epic poet has behind him a tradition of matter and a tradition of style; and that is what every other poet has behind him too; only, for the epic…

- Lascelles Abercrombie

The Border Ballads, for instance, and the Robin Hood Ballads, clearly suppose a state of society which is nothing but a very circumscribed and not ve…

- Lascelles Abercrombie

But the gravest difficulty, and perhaps the most important, in poetry meant solely for recitation, is the difficulty of achieving verbal beauty, or r…

- Lascelles Abercrombie

The world knows of a vast stock of epic material scattered up and down the nations; sometimes its artistic value is as extraordinary as its archaeolo…

- Lascelles Abercrombie

There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experien…

- Lascelles Abercrombie

That is to say, epic poetry has been invented many times and independently; but, as the needs which prompted the invention have been broadly similar,…

- Lascelles Abercrombie

Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind.

- Lascelles Abercrombie

It is more difficult to keep the attention of hearers than of readers.

- Lascelles Abercrombie

The first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read.

- Lascelles Abercrombie