Epics and poems: the 30 most written about

Mahabharata

Ancient smṛti text and Sanskrit epic

One of ancient India's two major Sanskrit epics revered in Hinduism, the Ramayana being the other. Both are counted as smṛti and itihasa texts.

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

Ramayana

Ancient Sanskrit epic

Also called the Valmiki Ramayana, since tradition credits it to Valmiki, a Hindu smriti epic poem of ancient India. With the Mahabharata it is one of Hinduism's two great epics, the Itihasas: accounts of past events, mixed with teaching on the aims of human life.

Wikidata · Photo: Sahibdin, Public domain

Bhagavad Gita

Major Hindu scripture

Often called just the Gita, a Hindu scripture that is part of the epic poem Mahabharata, probably composed in the second or first century BCE. It brings together several strands of Indian religious thought: the Vedic idea of dharma, yoga and jñana (knowledge) rooted in Sankhya, and bhakti (devotion).

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown artist, Public domain

Aeneid

Latin epic poem by Virgil

A Latin epic poem telling the legend of Aeneas, a Trojan who escaped the fall of Troy and sailed to Italy, where he became the forefather of the Romans. The Roman poet Virgil wrote it between 29 and 19 BC, in 9,896 lines of dactylic hexameter.

Wikidata · Photo: anonymous, Public domain

Beowulf

Old English epic poem

An Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend, 3,182 alliterative lines long, preserved in the Nowell Codex. Few works of Old English literature matter more or have been translated more often.

Wikidata · Photo: anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, Public domain

Metamorphoses

Mythological narrative poem by Ovid

A narrative poem in Latin by the Roman poet Ovid, from 8 CE, regarded as his magnum opus.

Wikidata · Photo: Joannes Gryphius, Public domain

Paradise Lost

1667 epic poem by John Milton

John Milton's epic in blank verse (the English poet lived 1608–1674) on the biblical fall of man: how Satan, the fallen angel, tempted Adam and Eve, and how they were driven out of the Garden of Eden.

Wikidata · Photo: John Milton, Public domain

Song of Roland

11th-century French epic poem

A chanson de geste of the 11th century about the deeds of Roland, the Frankish military leader, at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in AD 778, in Charlemagne's reign. No older major work of French literature survives.

Wikidata · Photo: Simon Marmion, Public domain

The Raven

1845 narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe

A narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845, often remarked on for its supernatural atmosphere, stylised language and musicality.

Wikidata · Photo: Gustave Doré / Edgar Allan Poe / Harper / Edmund Clarence Stedman, CC0

The Canterbury Tales

Story collection by Geoffrey Chaucer

A collection of twenty-four stories, mostly in verse, that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote in Middle English between 1387 and 1400. They are framed as an imagined storytelling contest among pilgrims travelling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

Nibelungenlied

Middle High German epic poem from around 1200

Translated as The Song of the Nibelungs, an epic poem in Middle High German written around 1200. Its unknown poet probably came from the region around Passau.

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain

The Tale of Igor's Campaign

12th century Old East Slavic heroic poem

An epic poem in Old East Slavic by an unknown author, recounting Igor Svyatoslavich's unsuccessful raid against the Polovtsians of the Don River region.

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

Cantar de mio Cid

Castilian epic poem

Also called El Poema de mio Cid, an anonymous cantar de gesta of the 12th century and the oldest Castilian epic poem that survives. Based on true events, it tells of the deeds of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, known as El Cid, a Castilian knight and hero of medieval Spain, in the eleventh century, when Castile's kingdom and several Taifa principalities of Al-Andalus were fighting over the Iberian Peninsula.

Wikidata · Photo: Per Abbat (copista), Public domain

Shakespeare's sonnets

William Shakespeare wrote sonnets on various themes; Shakespeare's sonnets almost always means the 154 printed together for the first time in a quarto in 1609.

Wikidata · Photo: William Shakespeare, Public domain

Works and Days

Poem written by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod

A didactic poem of around 700 BC by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, 828 lines long, in dactylic hexameter.

Wikidata · Photo: Monsieursven, CC0

Epic of Manas

Kyrgyz traditional epic poem

A long traditional epic poem of the Kyrgyz people of Central Asia. Versions dating from the 19th century include events from the 8th, but Kyrgyz tradition holds that the poem is much older.

Wikidata · Photo: Qyrgyz, CC BY-SA 4.0

Layla and Majnun

Ancient Arabic love story

An ancient Arab love story about Qays ibn al-Mulawwah, a poet of the 7th century, and his beloved, Layla al-Amiriyah. It comes from Najd, in today's Saudi Arabia; tradition links Qays and Layla to Al-Aflaj Governorate and to the city of Layla, named after Layla al-Amiriyah.

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain

Georgics

Poem by Virgil

A poem by the Latin poet Virgil, probably published in 29 BCE. As its name says, its subject is farming; yet it is far from a peaceful rural poem, being full of tensions in both theme and purpose.

Wikidata · Photo: Virgil, Public domain

Orlando Furioso

Epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto

An Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto that has had a wide influence on later culture. Its first version appeared in 1516, but the complete poem was not published until 1532.

Wikidata · Photo: Ariosto, Ludovico, Public domain

Roman de la Rose

Medieval French poem

A medieval poem in Old French, framed as an allegorical dream vision. As poetry, it is a notable example of courtly literature, claiming to offer a "mirror of love" that reveals the entire art of romantic love.

Wikidata · Photo: Master of the Vienna Roman de la rose, Public domain

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

14th-century Middle English chivalric romance

A chivalric romance in alliterative verse from the late 14th century, in Middle English. Nobody knows who wrote it; the title was given to it centuries later.

Wikidata · Photo: "Gawayin Poet", late 14th century, Public domain

Jabberwocky

Nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll

A nonsense poem by the English writer and mathematician Lewis Carroll about the slaying of a creature called "the Jabberwock". It appeared in his novel of 1871, Through the Looking-Glass, sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

Wikidata · Photo: John Tenniel, Public domain

First They Came

Statement and poem by Martin Niemöller

The poem form of a confessional prose piece of 1946, written after the war by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984). It condemns, indirectly, how German intellectuals and clergy went along with the Nazis as they rose to power and then purged the groups they targeted, one after another.

Wikidata

O Fortuna

Medieval Latin poem, part of the Carmina Burana

A medieval Goliardic poem in Latin, part of the collection called the Carmina Burana, written early in the 13th century. It laments Fortuna, the relentless fate that in Roman mythology rules gods and mortals alike.

Wikidata · Photo: Anonymous Unknown author, Public domain

Masnavi

Persian poetic work on Sufism by Rumi

A long Persian masnavi by Rumi, which has shaped Sufism as few other works have: six books of poetry, together about 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines.

Wikidata · Photo: Khalili Collections, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

1798 poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge about the experiences of a sailor back from a long voyage. Written in 1797–98, it appeared in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads. Some modern editions follow a revised version, printed in 1817, that added a gloss.

Wikidata · Photo: Unknown, Public domain

Annabel Lee

Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

The last complete poem the American writer Edgar Allan Poe wrote. Like many of his poems, it deals with the death of a beautiful woman.

Wikidata · Photo: Edgar Allan Poe, "Annabel Lee", 1849 fair copy., Public domain

Parzival

13th-century Arthurian romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach

A medieval chivalric romance in Middle High German by Wolfram von Eschenbach, poet and knight. Usually dated to the early 13th century, within its first quarter, it follows the Arthurian hero Parzival on his long search for the Holy Grail after failing to win it at first.

Wikidata · Photo: Wolfram von Eschenbach; Werkstatt Diebold Lauber in Hagenau, Public domain

The Waste Land

1922 poem by T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot's poem of 434 lines, widely thought one of the 20th century's most important poems in English and central to modernist verse. It came out in 1922, in the UK in the October number of The Criterion, which Eliot edited, and in the US in the November number of The Dial.

Wikidata · Photo: T. S. Eliot, Public domain

Gita Govinda

Medieval Indian text based on Hindu god Radha and Krishna

A work by Jayadeva, a Hindu poet of the 12th century, about the relationship between Krishna, Radha and the gopis of Vrindavan.

Wikidata