page_title: Long poem
section_title: Epic
hierarchical_section_title: Long poem / Subgenres / Epic
caption_attribution_description: This is a public domain image from Kip Wheeler's homepage at Carson-Newman College. Kip Wheeler declared its status thus: "The original image of the Beowulf manuscript comes from the anonymous Anglo-Saxon scribe who wrote the 'Nowell Codex', Cotton Vitellius A.x.v. 129 r. It appears here as reproduced in Julius Zupitza's Beowulf: Autotypes of the Unique Cotton MS Vitellius A.xv. in the British Museum with a Transliteration and Notes. E.E.T.S. O.S. 77. London: Trubner &amp; Co., 1882. This image is public domain."
context_page_description: The long poem is a literary genre including all poetry of considerable length. Though the definition of a long poem is vague and broad, the genre includes some of the most important poetry ever written.
  With more than 220000 verses and about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem in the world. It is roughly ten times the size of the Iliad and Odyssey combined, roughly five times longer than Dante's Divine Comedy, and about four times the size of the Ramayana and Ferdowsi's Shahnameh.
  In English, Beowulf and Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde are among the first important long poems. The long poem thrived and gained new vitality in the hands of experimental Modernists in the early 1900s and has continued to evolve through the 21st century.
  The long poem has evolved into an umbrella term, encompassing many subgenres, including epic, verse novel, verse narrative, lyric sequence, lyric series, and collage/montage.
context_section_description: Critic Joseph Conte describes the epic as a long poem that "has to have grand voice and purpose. . . it has to say something big." Lynn Keller describes one of the epic's aspects as including a "quasi-circular quest-journey structure" that she says is present in the long poem Song of Myself by Whitman.  Yet that long poem, Keller notes, does not have a "specified end toward which the poem or speaker is directed," unlike a more traditional long poem.  Though long poems do have roots in the epic form, that does not mean long poems that are epic-like are completely epic.  A second example of long poems distancing themselves from the traditional epic form is seen in Helen In Egypt by H.D.  Though traditional epics feature physical quests or journeys, Helen In Egypt is about the psychological journey of Helen.
  Other characteristics of the epic include a hero figure, myths, and quests for the characters. Many such characteristics are seen in various long poems, but with some changes.  For example, Helen In Egypt brings mythic revision, or revisionary mythopoesis, into play. Even though it includes the myth from the epic, the revised telling of the myth makes the long poem stand out as its own form.  Additionally, one cannot look at the epic as a single, unified form of inspiration for long poems.  As Keller points out, certain long poems can have roots in very specific epics instead of the overall epic category.
  The long poem Omeros by Derek Walcott has drawn mixed criticism on whether it should or should not be tied to the traditional epic form.  Those against that idea say that the poem's story is not as important as those found in traditional epics.  Omeros tells the tale of fishermen in the Caribbean fighting over and lusting after a waitress instead of a typically heroic tale of battles and quests.  On the other side of the argument lies the point that it is important to keep in mind that Omeros has ties to the epic genre, if only as a contrast.  By putting more simple characters in the forefront as opposed to warriors, Walcott revises the traditional epic form, which these critics say is something to notice as opposed to cutting off Omeros from any ties to the epic whatsoever.  Furthermore, these critics say that one cannot ignore the epic influence on the poem since its characters' names are taken from Homer.  In Omeros there are distinct elements obviously influenced by traditional epics, such as a trip to the underworld, talk of a muse, etc.
  In interviews, Walcott has both affirmed and denied that Omeros is tied to the epic form.  In one interview he stated that it was a type of epic poem, but in another interview he said the opposite, stating as part of his evidence that there are no epic-like battles in his poem.  In Omeros Walcott implies that he has never read Homer, which is probably untrue based on the character names derived from Homer. Walcott's denial of his poem being tied too heavily to the epic form may stem from his concern that people might only think of it as being an epic-influenced poem instead of transcending the epic genre.
  Based on this criticism of Omeros it is clear that the generic identity of a long poem greatly contributes to its meaning.  Because long poems are influenced by many more strictly defined genres, a long poem revising strict generic rules creates striking contrast with epic-genre expectations.
  Keller also notes that she agrees with critic Susan Friedman when Friedman expresses her concern that the long poem associated with the epic has been "the quintessential male territory whose boundaries enforce women's status as outsiders on the landscape of poetry."  Considering that there are many long poem authors that are women, one cannot fully associate the long poem with the epic genre.
  However, the typical exclusion of women in the epic tradition is for many female authors what makes the long poem an appealing form for laying cultural claim to the epic.
  Control of or at least inclusion in the creation of a cultural epic is important because the traditional epic poem like The Odyssey o
caption: The first page of the Beowulf manuscript. Beowulf was one of the first long poems in English.
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