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

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 archaeological interest, but not always.

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

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.

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.

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

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