/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.18429909]

How to get into epic poetry? Where to start?

[Anonymous No.18429917]

the iliad or the odyssey. you could've googled this. delete your thread

[Anonymous No.18429925]

>>18429909
start on my balls and work your way up slowly

[Anonymous No.18429926]

I would suggest reading epic poetry

[Anonymous No.18429950]

>>18429909
You're gay and stupid

[࿇ C Œ M G E N V S ࿇ !KNDY3cHnRY No.18429955]

[Anonymous No.18429980]

>>18429925
On my Balls? By who?
I'm trans btw

[Anonymous No.18430019]

>>18429909
I'll do the dumb thing and treat this post like a sincere request. So a couple thoughts...

- first, take a gander at the wikipedia page for epic poetry or, better, get William Allen's Classical Literature: A Very Short Introduction off libgen and read chapter 2 on the epic. To get into the form, you need to understand what it tries to accomplish and the conventions that it employs.

- while you don't necessarily _have_ to start with Homer, that is where it begins in the western tradition. Virgil is following Homer's lead, while Dante and Milton follow Virgil (literally, in Dante's case).

- Mostly, however, I would follow your interests. Since epics were, traditionally, a sort of summing up of a whole culture—the collection and transmission of all that is important—look for a poem that comes from a period/culture that interests you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epic_poems#Medieval_epics_(500–1500)

- If you are somewhat conversant in the classical conventions and purpose of the epic, it gives you a basis for understanding the deviations of particualr poems. When does a long poem become an epic?

- then read with an open mind and skim through the dull lists and, hopefully, find a lot of pleasure in the process

[Anonymous No.18430026]

>>18430019
We're in the transitory period between American hours and Bri'ish hours, which means no effortposting is allowed. It's sillyposting hours.

[Anonymous No.18430038]

>>18430019
Thx