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A narrative poem tells a story of great civilizations and heroes. The subject matter includes topics of human interest. For example, one of the first known examples of epic literature is the Epic of Gilgamesh, a story about a king descended from gods, from ancient Mesopotamia.
- The Characters in Epic Poetry
- The Form of Epic Poetry
- Supernatural Forces in Epic Poetry
- Examples of Epic Poetry
- Related Literary Terms
- Other Resources
When considering epic poetry, more than likely, your thoughts immediately go to the two works attributed to Homer, the Iliad, and the Odyssey. The main characters of these works–Odysseus, Achilles, Hector, Agamemnon, Priam, Helen– are all heads above other men and women of their time for their bravery, and of course, in Helen’s case, for her beauty...
Just as the characters in epic poetry have to be grand enough to stand up to the form, so too does the form have to do justice to the character. The verse is normally elaborate and therefore able to exaggeratethe already otherworldly qualities of the characters of an epic. Almost every epic in the Western literary canon makes use of a dactylic hexa...
The heroes in epic poetry are often assisted or stymied by known or unknown supernatural forces. This is a literary technique known as dues ex machina. It refers to the intervention of a god or more than a natural force into a narrative. This technique is usually applied in order to push the story towards a certain conclusion or change up what coul...
Paradise Lost by John Milton
One of the most widely read epics today, Paradise Lost, tells the story of Satan’s fall from Heaven, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and Satan’s attempts to fight a war against the angels remaining in Heaven. Here is a quote: Read more John Milton poems.
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
As mentioned above, The Divine Comedy is an epic that details the poet’s journey through the various stages of the afterlife. He’s led on this journey by Virgil, the poet responsible for the epic poem (that continues the story of the Trojans after the conclusion of the Iliad),the Aeneid.Here is a quote:
The Metamorphoses by Ovid
Ovid’s most famous and lasting work, The Metamorphoses, was written in 8 AD. It is made up of 11,995 lines and spans 15 books. It is usually considered an epic, but there are such a variety of themes and tones tapped into within the poem that it is sometimes classified into other genres. The verse tells around 250 individual stories within its lines. Altogether, they depict the story of the world’s creation to the birth of Julius Caesar. Here is a quote:
Extended Metaphor: a literary term that refers to a long metaphorical comparisonthat can last an entire poem.Read: The Odysseyby HomerListen: Classics Summarized – Paradise LostListen: The Iliadby HomerJ. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is an example of epic fantasy, though the genre is not limited to the Western tradition, for example: Arabic epic literature includes One Thousand and One Nights; and Indian epic poetry includes Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Today, an epic is an epic if it’s a long story about a hero that serves as an organizing point of cultural or social identity. It might be used to describe any creative media that has a broad scope, that speaks broadly to the human condition, that is long or large, and that is ambitious in its artistic goals.
Epic, long narrative poem recounting heroic deeds, although the term has also been loosely used to describe novels, such as Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and motion pictures, such as Sergey Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible.
- Atsuhiko Yoshida
Epic: Featured Poems - The following poems and excerpts are examples of the epic form. Learn more and read more epic poems.
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May 22, 2018 · BBC Culture’s Stories that Shaped the World series looks at epic poems, plays and novels from around the globe that have influenced history and changed mindsets.
