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

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.

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

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

For the stage displays the first vigorous expression, as the natural thing and without conspicuous restraint, of private individuality.

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

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.