The world knows of a vast stock of epic material scattered up and down the nations; sometimes its artistic value is as extraordinary as its archaeological interest, but not always.

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.