Epic poetry

The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, which retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic person or group of heroic persons either historical or mythical. The Iliad and Odyssey are often named as examples. The first epics are associated strongly with the oral poetic tradition; literate societies have often copied the format, and the first and most obvious example is the Aeneid, following the style and subject matter of Homer.

More commonly, the word "epic" is used in reference to any fictional work; covering a relatively great deal of both geography and time. Examples of non-poetic epics are Beau Geste, How the West was Won, and Star Wars.

Notable epic poems, in chronological order:

• 20th century BC: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Sumerian mythology)
• 19th century BC: The Ramayana (Hindu mythology)
• 1316 BC: The Mahabharata (of which the Bhagavad Gita is a section) (Hindu mythology)
• 8th century BC:
  • The Iliad by Homer (Greek mythology)
  • The Odyssey by Homer (Greek mythology)
• 1st century BC: Aeneid by Vergil
• 9th century: Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon mythology)
• 10th century: Shahnameh
• 11th century: La Chanson de Roland (The Song of Roland)
• 13th century:
  • Edda (Norse mythology)
  • Nibelungenlied (Germanic mythology)
• 14th century: La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) by Dante Alighieri
• 1516: Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto
• 1596: The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
• 17th century: Paradise Lost by John Milton
• 19th Century:
  • Don Juan by George Gordon, Lord Byron
  • Clarel by Herman Melville
• 1830s: Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot (Finnish mythology)
• 20th Century:
  • Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton
  • The Cantos by Ezra Pound
• African epic

Table of contents

1 English epic poetry 2 German epic poetry 3 Italian epic poetry 4 Irish epic poetry 5 Hebrew and Jewish epic poetry 6 External links 7 References

English epic poetry

German epic poetry

Italian epic poetry

Irish epic poetry

Hebrew and Jewish epic poetry

Though an abundance of historical reminiscence and legend lay in the storehouse of Jewish literature, none of it was built into epic poems until relatively recently. Religious and secular poets, it is true, often treated of such subjects as Abraham and Isaac and the near sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, Jacob and Joseph and the story of their lives, Moses and Aaron and the departure from Egypt, Joshua and the entrance into Canaan, Jeremiah and the fall of Jerusalem, Elijah the Prophet, etc. These, however, are often considered only poems with an epic coloring; a pure epic poem according to the rules of art was not produced during the Middle Ages.

The stern character of Jewish monotheism prevented the rise of hero-worship, without which real epic poetry is impossible. Solomon de Oliveira is probably one of the first of whom an epic is known ("Elat Ahabim," Amsterdam, 1665). The first to produce an epic poem was N. H. Wessely with his Mosaide "Shire Tif'eret" (Berlin, 1789-1802), an epic on the Exodus from Egypt. The influence of a similar work by the German poet Klopstock is evident. Next to him stands Shalom Kohn with his "Ner David," an epic poem on King David (Vienna, 1834). The influence of these two epics on the readers and poets of that time was considerable.

In addition the following poets may be mentioned from that and the succeeding period: Issachar Bär Schlesinger ("Ha-Ḥashmona'im," Prague, 1817); Samuel Molder ("Beruriya," Amsterdam, 1825); Süsskind Raschkow ("Ḥayye Shimshon," Breslau, 1824); Gabriel Pollak ("Ha-Keritot," Amsterdam, 1834, and "Ḳiḳayon le-Yonah," ib. 1853); and Hirsch Wassertrilling ("Hadrat Elisha'," Breslau, 1857, and "Nezer Ḥamodot," ib. 1860). Works of this sort have been written by M. I. Lebensohn, J. L. Gordon ("Ahavat David u-Mikal," Wilna, 1856, and vols. iii. and iv. of his collected works, St. Petersburg, 1883), Chaim N. Bialik, and S. Tschernichowski.

External links

• WorldChronicle.net