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.
Lascelles AbercrombiePoetry is the work of poets, not of peoples or communities; artistic creation can never be anything but the production of an individual mind.
Lascelles AbercrombieThe first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read.
Lascelles AbercrombieThat 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.
Lascelles Abercrombie