Lascelles Abercrombie
Lascelles Abercrombie
Lascelles Abercrombie was a British poet and literary critic, one of the "Dymock poets"...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 January 1881
successful epic may
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.
epic needs invention
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.
attention difficult reader
It is more difficult to keep the attention of hearers than of readers.
fall epic poetry-is
If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it.
community mind artistic-creation
Poetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind.
important achieve difficulty
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.
art poet substitutes
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.
important age borders
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.
believe mean sometimes
It seems difficult, sometimes, to believe that there was a time when sentiments now become habitual, sentiments that imply not only the original imperative of conduct, but the original metaphysic of living, were by no means altogether habitual.