The theater-goer in conventional dramatic theater says: Yes, I've felt that way, too. That's the way I am. That's life. That's the... way it will always be. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is no escape for him. That's great art--Everything is self- evident. I am made to cry with those who cry, and laugh with those who laugh. But the theater-goer in the epic theater says: I would never have thought that. You can't do that. That's very strange, practically unbelievable. That has to stop. The suffering of this or that person grips me because there is an escape for him. That's great art--nothing is self-evident. I am made to laugh about those who cry, and cry about those who laugh.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am not a great man, but sometimes I think the impersonal and objective equality of my talent and the sacrifices of it, in pieces..., to preserve its essential value has some sort of epic grandeur.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whatever Epic may mean, it implies some weight and solidity; Romance means nothing, if it does not convey some notion of mystery a...nd fantasy. A general distinction of this kind, whatever names may be used to render it, can be shown, in medieval literature, to hold good of the two large groups of narrative belonging to the earlier and the later Middle Ages respectively. Beowulf might stand for the one side. Lancelot or Gawain for the other. It is a difference not confined to literature. The two groups are distinguished from one another, as the respectable piratical gentleman of the North Sea coast in the ninth or tenth century differs from one of the companions of Saint Louis. The latter has something fantastic in his ideas which the other has not. The Crusader may indeed be natural and brutal enough in most of his ways, but he has lost the sobriety and simplicity of the earlier type of rover.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;... The day returns, but nevermore Returns the traveler to the shore, And the tide rises, the tide falls.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The tide rises, the tide falls, The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;... Along the sea-sands damp and brown The traveler hastens toward the town, And the tide rises, the tide falls.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, "I ha...ve no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
the walk liberating, I was released from forms, from the perpendiculars,... straight lines, blocks, boxes, binds of thought into the hues, shadings, rises, flowing bends and blends of sight:LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... the aspiring immigrant ... is not content to progress alone. Solitary success is imperfect success in his eyes. He must take h...is family with him as he rises.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »