List of long poems in English

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This is a list of English poems over 1000 lines. This list includes poems that are generally identified as part of the long poem genre, being considerable in length, and with that length enhancing the poems' meaning or thematic weight. This alphabetical list is incomplete, as the label of long poem is selectively and inconsistently applied in literary academia.

PoetPoemYear publishedLengthVerse form
Algerton, Frank C.Columbia: an Epic Poem on the Late Civil War between the Northern and Southern States of North America1893heroic couplet
Ammons, A. R. Sphere: The Form of a Motion1973
Ammons, A. R. Tape for the Turn of the Year1965
Ashbery, John Flow Chart 1991
Atherstone, Edwin The Fall of Nineveh 1828–1868blank verse
Atherstone, Edwin Israel in Egypt 1861c.20,000blank verse
Auden, W.H. The Age of Anxiety1944–46c.2,500
Aurobindo, Sri Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol 1951c.24,000 linesblank verse
Anonymous Beowulf 8th–11th century3,182 linesalliterative verse
Benét, Stephen Vincent John Brown's Body 1930c.15,000 linesvarious
Blackmore, Richard Eliza1705c.8,000 linesheroic couplet
Blackmore, Richard Redemption1722
Bowles, William Lisle The Spirit of Discovery; or, the Conquest of Ocean1804blank verse
Branch, Anna Hempstead Nimrod 1910blank verse
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Aurora Leigh 185610,938 linesblank verse
Browning, Robert Sordello 1840heroic couplet
Browning, Robert The Ring and the Book 1868–69c.21,000 linesblank verse
Browning, Robert Fifine at the Fair 18722,530 linesalexandrine couplets
Bryant, John Delavau Redemption, a Poem 1857blank verse
Bulmer, Agnes Messiah's Kingdom 1833c.14,000 linesheroic couplet
Byron, Lord Don Juan 182415,920 linesottava rima
Byron, Lord Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 1812–184,455 linesSpenserian stanza
Chaucer, Geoffrey Troilus and Criseyde c.13808,239 linesrhyme royal
Clough, Arthur Hugh The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich 1848c.1,870hexameter
Cowper, William The Task 1785blank verse
Crane, Hart The Bridge 1930
Anonymous Cursor Mundi c.1300c.30,000 lines, depending on manuscriptprimarily eight-syllable couplets
H.D. Helen in Egypt1961
H.D. Trilogy1944–46
Davenant, William Gondibert 16516,940 linesdecasyllabic quatrains
Dickey, James The Zodiac1976
Dorn, Edward Gunslinger 1989
Drayton, Michael The Barons' Wars 16033,624 linesottava rima
Drummond, William Hamilton The Battle of Trafalgar1806heroic couplet
Duncan, Robert The Structure of Rime1960
Duncan, Robert Passages1968
Drayton, Michael Poly-Olbion 1612; 162215,000 linesalexandrine
Dryden, John The Hind and the Panther 16872,569 linesheroic couplet
Emerson, Claudia Pinion2002
Fitchett, John King Alfred 1841c.131,000 lines [1] blank verse
Gawain Poet Cleanness late 14th century1,813 linesalliterative verse
Gawain Poet Pearl late 14th century1212 linesalliterative verse
Gawain Poet Sir Gawain and the Green Knight late 14th century2,530 linesalliterative verse
Anonymous Generides late 14th century6696 linesrhyme royal
Glover, Richard Leonidas1737blank verse
Gower, John Confessio Amantis c.139033,000 linesrhymed couplets
Greening, John Fotheringhay1995
Greening, John Gascoigne's Egg2000
Greening, John Omm Sety2001
Greening, John The Silence2019
Thomas Hoccleve Regiment of Princes 1410–14135,464 linesSeven-line decasyllabic rhymed stanzas
Howe, Susan The Liberties1980
Hughes, Langston Montage of a Dream Deferred1951
Jones, David The Anathemata1952
Jones, David In Parenthesis 1937
Kaye, John Brayshaw Trial of Christ in Seven Stages1909blank verse
Kaye, John Brayshaw Vashti1894blank verse
Keats, John Endymion 1818c.4,100heroic couplet
Anonymous King Alisaunder c.13004,000 linesoctosyllabic couplets
Anonymous King Horn c.12251,650 linesrhyming couplets with occasional alliterative metre
Langland, William Piers Plowman c.1370–90c.7,300 linesalliterative metre
Anonymous Laud Troy Book c.140018,664 linestetrameter couplets
Lawrance, William Vicars The Story of Judeth1889heroic couplet
Layamon Brut c.1190–1215c.16,095 lines [2] alliterative verse with rhyme
Lydgate, John The Fall of the Princes 1431–143936,365 linesrhyme royal
Lydgate, John Siege of Thebes 1420–14224,716 linesrhyme royal
Lydgate, John Troy Book 1412–2030,117 linesten-syllable couplets
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth Evangeline 18471396 lineshexameter
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth The Song of Hiawatha 18555,414 linesoctosyllable
Robert Mannyng Handlyng Synne c.1303c.12,000 linesfour-stress rhyme royal
Masefield, John Dauber 1912rhyme royal
Meek, Alexander Beaufort The Red Eagle. A Poem of the South1855
Melville, Herman Clarel 187618,000 linesirregularly rhymed iambic tetrameter
Miles, Sibella Elizabeth The Wanderer of Scandinavia, or Sweden Delivered 1826Spenserian stanza
Milton, John Paradise Lost 166710,565 linesblank verse
Milton, John Paradise Regained 16712,070 linesblank verse
Milton, John Samson Agonistes 16711,758 linesblank verse
Moon, George Washington Elijah the Prophet 1866blank verse
Morris, William The Earthly Paradise 1868–1870various
Morris, William The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs 187610,000+ linesalliterative verse
Ogilvie, John Britannia 1801blank verse
Olson, Charles Maximus Poems1953–1975
Orrm Ormulum 1150–118018,956 linesunrhymed strict heptameter
Peterson, Joseph G. Inside the Whale2011
Pound, Ezra Cantos 1915–62free verse
Anonymous Prick of Conscience c.1325–1350c.9,600 linesoctosyllabic couplets
Robinson, Edwin Arlington Merlin 1917c.2,560 linesblank verse
Seymer, John Gunning The Fall of Saul 1839blank verse
Shakespeare, William The Rape of Lucrece 15941,855 linesrhyme royal
Shelley, Percy Bysshe Queen Mab 18132,289 lines
Shelley, Percy Bysshe The Revolt of Islam 18174,818 linesSpenserian stanza
Southey, Robert Joan of Arc1796
Southey, Robert Thalaba the Destroyer 1801
Southey, Robert Madoc 1805
Southey, Robert Roderick the Last of the Goths 1814
Spenser, Edmund The Faerie Queene [3] 1590, 159634,928 linesSpenserian stanza
Stanford, Frank The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You 197715,283 lines
Stein, Gertrude Stanzas in Meditation1956
Swinburne, Algernon Charles Tristram of Lyonesse 18824,488 linesheroic couplet
Thomson, James The Castle of Indolence 17481,422 linesSpenserian stanza
Thomson, James The Seasons 17305,405 linesblank verse
Tighe, Mary Psyche, or the Legend of Love [4] 18053,348 linesSpenserian stanza
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lay of Leithian 19854,223 linesrhyming couplets
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lay of the Children of Húrin 19852,276 linesalliterative verse
Tolson, Melvin B. Harlem Gallery1965
Townsend, George Armageddon1815blank verse
Walcott, Derek Omeros 1990c.8,000terza rima, free verse
Whitman, Walt Song of Myself 18811346 linesfree verse
Williams, Saul , said the shotgun to the head2006
Williams, William Carlos Paterson 1946–58
Wordsworth, William The Prelude 1850blank verse
Zukofsky, Louis "A"1928–78free verse

References

  1. Sutton, Charles William. "Fitchett, John"  . Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 19. p. 79.
  2. The majority of Brut's lines are pairs of half-lines, though some consist of only one half-line. The poem contains 32241 total half-lines in the longer of the two manuscripts in which it is extant.
  3. "The Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto Vi by Edmund Spenser | Poemist".
  4. "Psyche; or, the Legend of Love: Canto Ii. By Mary Tighe | Poemist".