List of long poems in English

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.

Poet Poem Year published Length Verse formAlgerton, Frank C. Columbia: an Epic Poem on the Late Civil War between the Northern and Southern States of North America 1893 heroic coupletAmmons, A. R. Sphere: The Form of a Motion 1973 Ammons, A. R. Tape for the Turn of the Year 1965 Ashbery, John Flow Chart 1991 4,794 lines Atherstone, Edwin The Fall of Nineveh 1828–1868 blank verseAtherstone, Edwin Israel in Egypt 1861 blank verseAuden, W.H. The Age of Anxiety 1944–46 Aurobindo, Sri Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol 1951 lines blank verseAnonymous Beowulf 3,182 lines alliterative verseBenét, Stephen Vincent John Brown's Body 1930 lines variousBlackmore, Richard Eliza 1705 lines heroic coupletBlackmore, Richard Redemption 1722 Bowles, William Lisle The Spirit of Discovery; or, the Conquest of Ocean 1804 blank verse Branch, Anna Hempstead Nimrod 1910 blank verseBrowning, Elizabeth Barrett Aurora Leigh 1856 10,938 lines blank verseBrowning, Robert Sordello 1840 heroic coupletBrowning, Robert The Ring and the Book 1868–69 lines blank verseBrowning, Robert Fifine at the Fair 1872 2,530 lines alexandrine couplets Bryant, John Delavau Redemption, a Poem 1857 blank verseBulmer, Agnes Messiah's Kingdom 1833 lines heroic coupletByron, Lord Don Juan 1824 15,920 lines ottava rimaByron, Lord Childe Harold's Pilgrimage 1812–18 4,455 lines Spenserian stanzaChaucer, Geoffrey Troilus and Criseyde 8,239 lines rhyme royalClough, Arthur Hugh The Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich 1848 hexameter Cowper, William The Task 1785 blank verseCrane, Hart The Bridge 1930 Anonymous Cursor Mundi lines, depending on manuscript primarily eight-syllable coupletsH.D. Helen in Egypt 1961 H.D. Trilogy 1944–46 Davenant, William Gondibert 1651 6,940 lines decasyllabic quatrainsDickey, James The Zodiac 1976 Dorn, Edward Gunslinger 1989 Drayton, Michael The Barons' Wars 1603 3,624 lines ottava rimaDrayton, Michael Poly-Olbion 1612; 1622 15,000 lines alexandrineDrummond, William Hamilton The Battle of Trafalgar 1806 heroic coupletDryden, John The Hind and the Panther 1687 2,569 lines heroic coupletDuncan, Robert The Structure of Rime 1960 Duncan, Robert Passages 1968 Emerson, Claudia Pinion 2002 Fitchett, John King Alfred 1841 lines blank verse Gawain Poet Cleanness 1,813 lines alliterative verse Gawain Poet Pearl 1212 lines alliterative verse Gawain Poet Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 2,530 lines alliterative verseAnonymous Generides 6696 lines rhyme royalGlover, Richard Leonidas 1737 blank verseGower, JohnConfessio Amantis33,000 linesrhymed coupletsGreening, John Fotheringhay 1995 Greening, John Gascoigne's Egg 2000 Greening, John Omm Sety 2001 Greening, John The Silence 2019 Thomas Hoccleve Regiment of Princes 1410–1413 5,464 lines Seven-line decasyllabic rhymed stanzasHowe, Susan The Liberties 1980 Hughes, Langston Montage of a Dream Deferred 1951 Jones, David The Anathemata 1952 Jones, David In Parenthesis 1937 Kaye, John Brayshaw Trial of Christ in Seven Stages 1909 blank verseKaye, John Brayshaw Vashti 1894 blank verseKeats, John Endymion 1818 heroic couplet Anonymous King Alisaunder 4,000 lines octosyllabic couplets Anonymous King Horn 1,650 lines rhyming couplets with occasional alliterative metreLangland, William Piers Plowman lines alliterative metre Anonymous Laud Troy Book 18,664 lines tetrameter coupletsLawrance, William Vicars The Story of Judeth 1889 heroic coupletLayamon Brut linesThe 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. alliterative verse with rhymeLydgate, John The Fall of the Princes 1431–1439 36,365 lines rhyme royalLydgate, John Siege of Thebes 1420–1422 4,716 lines rhyme royalLydgate, John Troy Book 1412–20 30,117 lines ten-syllable coupletsLongfellow, Henry Wadsworth Evangeline 1847 1396 lines hexameterLongfellow, Henry Wadsworth The Song of Hiawatha 1855 5,414 lines octosyllable Robert Mannyng Handlyng Synne lines four-stress rhyme royalMasefield, John Dauber 1912 rhyme royal Meek, Alexander Beaufort The Red Eagle. A Poem of the South 1855 Melville, Herman Clarel 1876 18,000 lines irregularly rhymed iambic tetrameterMerrill, James The Changing Light at Sandover 1976–82 17,000 lines various Miles, Sibella Elizabeth The Wanderer of Scandinavia, or Sweden Delivered 1826 Spenserian stanzaMilton, John Paradise Lost 1667 10,565 lines blank verseMilton, John Paradise Regained 1671 2,070 lines blank verseMilton, John Samson Agonistes 1671 1,758 lines blank verseMoon, George Washington Elijah the Prophet 1866 blank verseMorris, William The Earthly Paradise 1868–1870 variousMorris, William The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs 1876 10,000+ lines alliterative verseOgilvie, John Britannia 1801 blank verseOlson, Charles Maximus Poems 1953–1975 Orrm Ormulum 1150–1180 18,956 lines unrhymed strict heptameterPeterson, Joseph G. Inside the Whale 2011 Petrucci, Mario i tulips 2010/2013/2014 (excerpts) Anglo-American modernist sequence of 1111 poems (coda = exactly 1111 lines); many tens of thousands of lines (est.) mainly concrete tercets, rich imagery, closely-woven sonic patternsPound, Ezra Cantos 1915–62 free verseAnonymous Prick of Conscience lines octosyllabic coupletsRobinson, Edwin Arlington Merlin 1917 lines blank verseSeymer, John Gunning The Fall of Saul 1839 blank verseShakespeare, William The Rape of Lucrece 1594 1,855 lines rhyme royalShelley, Percy Bysshe Queen Mab 1813 2,289 lines Shelley, Percy Bysshe The Revolt of Islam 1817 4,818 lines Spenserian stanzaSouthey, Robert Joan of Arc 1796 Southey, Robert Thalaba the Destroyer 1801 Southey, Robert Madoc 1805 Southey, Robert Roderick the Last of the Goths 1814 Spenser, Edmund The Faerie Queene 1590, 1596 34,928 lines Spenserian stanzaStanford, Frank The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You 1977 15,283 lines Stein, Gertrude Stanzas in Meditation 1956 Swinburne, Algernon Charles Tristram of Lyonesse 1882 4,488 lines heroic coupletThomson, James The Castle of Indolence 1748 1,422 lines Spenserian stanzaThomson, James The Seasons 1730 5,405 lines blank verseTighe, Mary Psyche, or the Legend of Love 1805 3,348 lines Spenserian stanzaTolkien, J. R. R. The Lay of Leithian 1985 4,223 lines rhyming coupletsTolkien, J. R. R. The Lay of the Children of Húrin 1985 2,276 lines alliterative verseTolson, Melvin B. Harlem Gallery 1965 Townsend, George Armageddon 1815 blank verseWalcott, Derek Omeros 1990 terza rima, free verseWarren, Robert PennBrother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices1953blank verse, closet dramaWhitman, Walt Song of Myself 1881 1346 lines free verseWilliams, Saul , said the shotgun to the head 2006 Williams, William Carlos Paterson 1946–58 Wordsworth, William The Prelude 1850 blank verseZukofsky, Louis "A" 1928–78 free verse

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