Quotes About Epic

English writing tends to fall into two categories - the big, baggy epic novel or the fairly controlled, tidy novel. For a long time, I was a fan of the big, baggy novel, but there's definitely an advantage to having a little bit more control.

He passes from lyric to epic poetry in order to speak about the world and the torment in the world through man, rationally and emotionally. The poet then becomes a danger.

Let others sing of knights and paladinsIn aged accents and untimely words.

Let the Dragon ride again on the winds of time.

Hell at last … John Milton, Paradise Lost

In eternity this world will be like Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets.

In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets.

brilliant Achilles, tall Hektor, gray-eyed Athene.

All the elements of an Epic poem are found in Tragedy, but the elements of a Tragedy are not all found in the Epic poem.

Aristotle was to verge from his mentor in the Poetics, recognizing the light both tragic drama and epic poetry shed on the human condition.

Kalevala, whereas

Derek Walcott, the Nobel laureate poet, wrote in his famous epic work Omeros of his fisherman-hero Achilles walking finally and wearily up the shingled slope of an Atlantic beach. He has turned his back on the sea at last, but he knows that even without his seeing it, it is behind him all the while and simply, ponderously, magnificently, ominously, continuing to be the sea. The Ocean is, quite simply, "still going on.

But nothing of all that the peoples of Europe have produced is worth the first known poem to have appeared among them. Perhaps they will rediscover that epic genius when they learn how to accept the fact that nothing is sheltered from fate, how never to admire might, or hate the enemy, or to despise sufferers. It is doubtful if this will happen soon.

I think a relationship is like two stories," I say at last, feeling my way cautiously through my thoughts. "Like…two open books, pressing together, and all the words mingle into one big, epic story. But if they stop mingling…" I lift my glass for emphasis. "Then they turn into two stories again. And that's when it's over." I clap my hands together, spilling champagne. "The books shut. The End.

Or call up him that left half toldThe story of Cambuscan bold.

Ok, now this is epic.

My people say Gaea likes a good story, and she likes great heroes. Are you a hero?

I listen only to heroes. You spoke of great deeds when you sang your song. Speak of them now, to leave me forever. Sing to me of your adventures.

In the first place, history is not concerned to express beauty. I do not deny that a great historian, in narrating some heroic incident, may rival the epic and the saga. He may tell a tale which would be fascinating even if it were false. But such cases are exceptional, and ought to be exceptional. Directly it appears that the governing preoccupation of an historian is to be picturesque, his narrative becomes intolerable.

Real journeys may also be true in the mythic sense [Betty Levin, "Polar Bears and Lemmings"].

At the same time, it's a family story and more of an epic. I needed the third-person. I tried to give a sense that Cal, in writing his story, is perhaps inventing his past as much as recalling it.

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

Gemmell's name guarantees a satisfying story and a thumping good read. I recommend all his heroic creations - 'Druss the axeman,' 'the Jerusalem man,' among others - but my favourite has to be 'Waylander': Clint Eastwood with a crossbow and the same 'Make my day, punk' attitude.

The New Gods really need to be larger than life. There's an operatic quality to them, and they need to be handled pretty carefully, or else you'll go too far and be almost like a caricature.