Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things; the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours.

Lascelles Abercrombie

Lascelles Abercrombie

Chiefly Easier Familiar Glorified Hours Listen Listeners Matter Must Needed New Poetry Quite Remember Since Stories Than Things Tired Traditional Unexpected Would

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If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it.

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With several different kinds of poetry to choose from, a man would decide that he would like best to be an epic poet, and he would set out, in conscious determination, on an epic poem.

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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, so the invention itself has been.

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By the general process of epic poetry, I mean the way this form of art has constantly responded to the profound needs of the society in which it was made.

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