Epic poems you must read before you die

The 1001 books list omits epic poetry, even though some of the great monuments of world literature fall in that category. Which ones have you read? Which ones do you think everybody should read? I'll start:

* Iliad (Homer)
* Odyssey (Homer)
* Aeneid (Vergil)
* Paradise lost (Milton)
* Faust (Goethe)

The Song of Roland is a favorite of mine (although, come to think of it, it's been about 35 years since I read it; maybe time for a re-read!).

I've always thought of Faust as drama, not poetry. By the way, Faust is the only one of the epics mentioned above that I have read.

The Divine Comedy, of course. And The Canterbury Tales.

Double post! So I'll take this space to second Paradise Lost.

SusieBookworm, I thought so too until I started trying to read it. Unlike, say, Shakespeare, who uses free verse, Goethe is really working to make everything fit into several schemes. True, it is dialogue; but to me it is much more related to Milton or medieval poetry than to drama.

Some medieval epic poems:
- Reinaert de Vos (Middle Dutch, I must promote my own language group)
- Nibelungenlied
- Edda
- Beowulf

Oh, I've read Beowulf, too - only I made the mistake of reading it really fast and the only thing I remember is that Beowulf kills the monster (Grendel?), then dies.

Thanks for the clarification on Faust.

Oops, nope. There's a whole 'nother epoch in Beowulf's life after the conquest of Grendel. It's not so long you couldn't read it again.

Robert

Edited a day later to eliminate a costly embarrassment.

R

How about one of the very first "books" that we know of, Gilgamesh?

I say Don Juan by Lord Byron. It's a satire ans is hilarious.

I strongly recommend The Thebaid.

I've been meaning for years to read The Kalevala. I'll get round to it one of these days.

I've never read The Thebaid, either - the reading list just gets bigger and bigger!

For epic poetry, try the Cat in the Hat.

I'd love to read The Earthly Paradise one day. It might not necessarily be easy, nor pleasant, but a) I am something of a masochistic William Morris fan and b) I think it showcases the great change in taste over the last 1,5 centuries.

Also, this is not EPIC as such, but the (unrealised) medieval historian in me wants to read Le Roman de la rose. Now that's ONE book that had an amazing cultural importance.

I've become a huge fan of The Conference of the Birds lately.

After reading Don Juan and Aurora Leigh last year (neither of them is really an epic, but at least they are long narrative poems) I'm all fired up to knock off a few more Victorian heavyweights. I think I'll try The ring and the book next. A murder mystery in 20k lines of blank verse: probably doesn't count as an epic either...

DON JUAN IS AWESOME

"DON JUAN IS AWESOME"

Is that the sequel to Don Juan?

Is that the "Don Juan" from Southern California?

> 16 The Ring and the Book is Robert Browning at his very best. A wonderful book -- but look for an edition with footnotes, especially if you don't read Latin (one of the sections is quite heavy with Latin phrases).

Sticking with the old classics, Apollonius' Argonautica is pretty good. AKA Jason and the Argonauts.

How 'bout Ariosto's Orlando Furioso? It's got: giants, dwarves, hippogriffs, trumpets of horrid noise that scatter the enemy, dazzling shields that incinerate them with light-rays, fair maidens, foul maidens, castles of steel and of diamonds, magic swords, magic armor, magic swords, a ring of invisibility, naked ladies tied to rocks as sacrifice to the terrible orcs (rescued in the nick of time by one hero or another), pirates .... and of course, love, betrayal, and madness.
A good translation is Barbara Reynolds in the Penguin Classics

> 22 For some reason (I can't recall whether there was an influence) this reminds me of another looooonng poem, Spenser's The Faerie Queene. One of the longer poems in the English language, and it was only half completed!

I'd love to find the time to re-read it.

And after Homer, there's The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis, definitely epic and highly regarded.

I had a wonderful time reading Orlando Furioso. I read the Waldman prose translation.

I have the Loeb Dionysiaca on my shelf at home and will get to it one day...

Here is a bit of it:

http://www.theoi.com/Text/NonnusDionysiaca1.html

I think I'll go with The Thebaid before that though. Then there's Morgante...so much to read!