An epic is not even a re-creation of old things; it is altogether a new creation, a new creation in terms of old things.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about creation, old, olderness, things
Quotes by Lascelles Abercrombie
30 quotes by Lascelles Abercrombie
Lascelles Abercrombie, British Poet
Life period: 1881-1938
But it is Virgil who really begins the development of epic art.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about evolution, art, magic
But the development of human society does not go straight forward; and the epic process will therefore be a recurring process, the series a recurring series - though not in exact repetition.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about evolution, society, human imperfections
But the gravest difficulty, and perhaps the most important, in poetry meant solely for recitation, is the difficulty of achieving verbal beauty, or rather of making verbal beauty tell.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about beauty, poetry
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.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about society, poetry, art, magic
If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about fall, poetry
It is more difficult to keep the attention of hearers than of readers.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about attention
It is natural that, after the epic poet has arrived, the crude epic material in which he worked should scarcely be heard of.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about poets
Man creating his own destiny, man, however wearied with the long task of resistance, achieving some conscious community of aspiration, and dreaming of the perfection of himself: the poet whose lovely and noble art makes us a great symbol of that,...
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about aspiration, symbol, destiny, poets, man, art, magic, work
No great poetry, of whatever kind, is conceivable unless the subject has become integrated with the poet's mind and mood.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about poetry, poets, mind
No one will ever imagine character more deeply or more firmly than Homer did in, say, Achilles; but Apollonius was the man who showed how epic as well as drama may use the nice minutiae of psychological imagination.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about imagination, character, use, man
No poet will ever take the written word as a substitute for the spoken word; he knows that it is on the spoken word, and the spoken word only, that his art is founded.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about word, poets, art, magic
Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about poets, creation, poetry, mind, work
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.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about invention, poetry
The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals; but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about individuality, age, olderness, nothing, good, good luck
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 very important heroic age.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about society, state, age, olderness, nothing
The epic poet collaborates with the spirit of his time in the composition of his work. That is, if he is successful; the time may refuse to work with him, but he may not refuse to work with his time.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about work, time, poets, spirit
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 poet, tradition is rather narrower, rather more strictly compelling.
Quote by Lascelles Abercrombie about tradition, poets, style
