Epic poetry

Epic poetry tells a dramatic story in a poem. There are characters in the story. It is usually long, and takes place in different settings. Epic poems started in prehistoric times as part of oral tradition. The Kyrgyz Epic of Manas is one of the longest written epics in history.

Beowulf is a famous example, written in Old English. Well-known people who wrote epics were Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Dante, Edmund Spenser and Milton. William Wordsworth's Prelude plays with epic ideas though the poem is autobiography.

Characteristics

Epics have seven main characteristics:

1. The hero is outstanding. They might be important, and historically or legendarily significant.
2. The setting is large. It covers many nations, or the known world.
3. The action is made of deeds of great valor or requiring superhuman courage.
4. Supernatural forces—gods, angels, demons—insert themselves in the action.
5. It is written in a very special style (verse as opposed to prose).
6. The poet tries to remain objective.
7. Epic poems are believed to be supernatural and real by the hero and the villain

Conventions of epics:

1. It starts with the theme or subject of the story.
2. In epics inspired from Western civilization the writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus. The poet prays to the Muses to provide divine inspiration to tell the great story.
3. Narrative opens in medias res, or in the middle of things, usually with the hero at his lowest point. Usually flashbacks show earlier portions of the story.
4. Catalogues and genealogies are given. These long lists of objects, places, and people place the finite action of the epic within a broader, universal context. Often, the poet is also paying homage to the ancestors of audience members.
5. Main characters give extended formal speeches.
7. Use of the epic simile.
8. Heavy use of repetition or stock phrases.
9. It presents the heroic ideals such as courage, honour, sacrifice, patriotism and kindness.
10. An epic gives a clear window of the social and cultural patterns of the contemporary life. Beowulf thus shows the love of wine, wild celebration, war, adventure and sea-voyages.

Examples

Ancient

• 20th to 10th century BC:
  • Epic of Gilgamesh (Mesopotamia)
• 8th century BC to 3rd century AD:
  • Mahābhārata (Indian mythology)
• 8th to 6th century BC:
  • Iliad and Odyssey, ascribed to Homer (Greek mythology)
• 1st century BC:
  • Aeneid, Vergil (Latin)

Medieval

• Song of Roland
• 8th to 10th century AD
  • Beowulf (Old English)
• 12th to 13th century AD
  • Sirat Bani Hilal (Arabic) *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taghribat_Bani_Hilal]*
• 10th to 12th century AD
  • Njál's saga (Old Norse)
• 14th century AD
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (dialect of middle English)

Contemporary

Omeros (1990), Derek Walcott

Empire of Dreams (1988), Giannina Braschi

Related pages

• Lyric poetry - contrary notion