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" 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. "

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" Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things; the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours. "

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Remember

Poetry

New

" 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. "

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May

Time

Successful

" 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. "

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Invention

Been

Epic

" With several different kinds of poetry to choose from, a man would decide that he would like best to be an epic poet, and he would set out, in conscious determination, on an epic poem. "

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Man

Determination

Best

" The epic poet has behind him a tradition of matter and a tradition of style; and that is what every other poet has behind him too; only, for the epic poet, tradition is rather narrower, rather more strictly compelling. "

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Matter

Him

Tradition

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

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Keep

Difficult

" There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experience some significant symbolism of man's general destiny. "

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See

Destiny

Man

" 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. "

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Always

Down

Sometimes

" An epic is not made by piecing together a set of heroic lays, adjusting their discrepancies and making them into a continuous narrative. "

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Made

Narrative

Together

" 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. "

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Beauty

Poetry

Achieving

" 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. "

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Believe

Living

Now

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

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Meant To Be

Literary

First

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

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Epic Poetry

Within

Fall

" By the general process of epic poetry, I mean the way this form of art has constantly responded to the profound needs of the society in which it was made. "

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Way

Art

Mean

" Epic poetry exhibits life in some great symbolic attitude. It cannot strictly be said to symbolize life itself, but always some manner of life. "

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Great

Attitude

Poetry

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

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Work

Mind

Never

" But the development of human society does not go straight forward; and the epic process will therefore be a recurring process, the series a recurring series - though not in exact repetition. "

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Society

Forward

Repetition

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

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First

Individuality

Stage

" The reason can only be this: heroic poetry depends on an heroic age, and an age is heroic because of what it is, not because of what it does. "

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Age

Reason

Poetry

" 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. "

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Age

Nothing

Hood