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Lascelles Abercrombie

"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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"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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Amber Hurdle

"Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry."

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Amber Hurdle

"But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it."

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Amber Hurdle

"I get a little poetic sometimes. The moonlight does that to me."

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Amber Hurdle

"And here, in thought, to thee-In thought that can alone, Ascend thy empire and so be A partner of thy throne, By winged Fantasy, My embassy is given, Till secrecy shall knowledge be In the environs of Heaven."

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Amber Hurdle

"Justice is not Healing. Healing cometh only by suffering and patience, and maketh no demand, not even for Justice. Justice worketh only within the bonds of things as they are... and therefore though Justice is itself good and desireth no further evil, it can but perpetuate the evil that was, and doth not prevent it from the bearing of fruit in sorrow."

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Amber Hurdle

"None but a poet can write a tragedy. For tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation by the alchemy of poetry."

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Amber Hurdle

"Every poet has his dream reader: mine keeps a look out for curious prosodic fauna like bacchics and choriambs."

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Amber Hurdle

"My second thoughts condemnAnd wonder how I dareTo look you in the eye.What right have I to swearEven at one a.m.To love you till I die?Earth meets too many crimesFor fibs to interest her;If I can give my word,Forgiveness can recurAny number of timesIn Time. Which is absurd.Tempus fugit. Quite.So finish up your drink.All flesh is grass. It is. But who on earth can thinkWith heavy heart or lightOf what will come of this?"

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Amber Hurdle

"Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people."

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Amber Hurdle

"That men, who might have tower'd in the vanOf all the congregated world, to fanAnd winnow from the coming step of timeAll chaff of custom, wipe away all slimeLeft by men-slugs and human serpentry,Have been content to let occasion die,Whilst they did sleep in love's Elysium."

Explore more quotes by Lascelles Abercrombie

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Lascelles Abercrombie
"It is more difficult to keep the attention of hearers than of readers."
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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"For the stage displays the first vigorous expression, as the natural thing and without conspicuous restraint, of private individuality."
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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"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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Lascelles Abercrombie
"The first epics were intended for recitation; the literary epic is meant to be read."
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