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