How To Tell Students What To Look

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.

The First Epics Were Intended For Recitation; The Literary Epic Is Meant To Be Read.

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.

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.

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.