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.

He wrote a series of works on the nature of poetry including The Idea of Great Poetry (1925) and Romanticism (1926). In 1929 he moved on to the University of London and in 1935 to a prestigious readership at Oxford University. He also publiLascelles Abercrombied several volumes of original verse largely metaphysical poems in dramatic form and a number of verse plays.