Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe would take 1 hour and 42 minutes to read at a speed of 300 WPM for the typical reader. This would make the poem over 17,000 words long. It is a dramatic action verse romance written in iambic pentameter rhyming abab cdcd efef gggh ijji kkll mmnn ooox pppq rrrs tttu uuuv vvvw wwww xxxy yyyz. It was first published in 1598. Leander lived in Greece while Hero died in Rome. They both fell in love with the same woman but she married Leander. When he did not return, Hero waited years before dying. She had not heard that Leander had also died. This poem is based on a real event that took place in 149 B.C. Two young men named Heron and Leander met by chance as they went fishing together off the coast of Asia Minor (present-day Turkey). They fell in love with the same girl and wanted to marry her. But Leander's father refused to give his consent because he was a poor man and could not afford to marry off two sons at once.