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

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

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.

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.

How to tell students what to look for without telling them what to see is the dilemma of teaching.

The first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read.

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