If epic poetry is a definite species, the sagas do not fall within it. – 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. – Lascelles Abercrombie
Epic poetry exhibits life in some great symbolic attitude. It cannot strictly be said to symbolize life itself, but always some manner of life. – Lascelles Abercrombie
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. – Lascelles Abercrombie
I tell again the oldest and the newest story of all the world, — the story of Invincible Love! This tale divine — ancient as the beginning of things, fresh and young as the passing hour — has forms and names various as humanity. – Amelia E. Huddleston Barr, A Rose of a Hundred Leaves: A Love Story, 1891