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List of long poems in English

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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{more citations needed|date=July 2014}}

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.

class="wikitable sortable"

! Poet

! Poem

! Year published

! data-sort-type="number" | Length

! Verse 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, JohnFlow Chart1991
Atherstone, EdwinThe Fall of Nineveh1828–1868blank verse
Atherstone, EdwinIsrael in Egypt1861{{Circa|20,000|sortable=yes}}blank verse
Auden, W.H.The Age of Anxiety1944–46{{circa|2,500|sortable=yes}}
Aurobindo, SriSavitri: A Legend and a Symbol1951{{Circa|24,000|sortable=yes}} linesblank verse
AnonymousBeowulf{{sort|700|8th–11th century}}3,182 linesalliterative verse
Benét, Stephen VincentJohn Brown's Body1930{{Circa|15,000|sortable=yes}} linesvarious
Blackmore, RichardEliza1705{{Circa|8,000|sortable=yes}} linesheroic couplet
Blackmore, RichardRedemption1722
Bowles, William LisleThe Spirit of Discovery; or, the Conquest of Ocean1804blank verse
Branch, Anna HempsteadNimrod1910blank verse
Browning, Elizabeth BarrettAurora Leigh185610,938 linesblank verse
Browning, RobertSordello1840heroic couplet
Browning, RobertThe Ring and the Book1868–69{{Circa|21,000|sortable=yes}} linesblank verse
Browning, RobertFifine at the Fair18722,530 linesalexandrine couplets
Bryant, John DelavauRedemption, a Poem1857blank verse
Bulmer, AgnesMessiah's Kingdom1833{{Circa|14,000|sortable=yes}} linesheroic couplet
Byron, LordDon Juan182415,920 linesottava rima
Byron, LordChilde Harold's Pilgrimage1812–184,455 linesSpenserian stanza
Chaucer, GeoffreyTroilus and Criseyde{{Circa|1380|sortable=yes}}8,239 linesrhyme royal
Clough, Arthur HughThe Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich1848{{circa|1,870|sortable=yes}}hexameter
Cowper, WilliamThe Task1785blank verse
Crane, HartThe Bridge1930
AnonymousCursor Mundi{{Circa|1300|sortable=yes}}{{circa|30,000|sortable=yes}} lines, depending on manuscriptprimarily eight-syllable couplets
H.D.Helen in Egypt1961
H.D.Trilogy1944–46
Davenant, WilliamGondibert16516,940 linesdecasyllabic quatrains
Dickey, JamesThe Zodiac1976
Dorn, EdwardGunslinger1989
Drayton, MichaelThe Barons' Wars16033,624 linesottava rima
Drummond, William HamiltonThe Battle of Trafalgar1806heroic couplet
Duncan, RobertThe Structure of Rime1960
Duncan, RobertPassages1968
Drayton, MichaelPoly-Olbion1612; 162215,000 linesalexandrine
Dryden, JohnThe Hind and the Panther16872,569 linesheroic couplet
Emerson, ClaudiaPinion2002
Fitchett, JohnKing Alfred1841{{Circa|131,000|sortable=yes}} lines{{cite DNB|wstitle= Fitchett, John |volume= 19 |last= Sutton |first= Charles William |author-link= Charles William Sutton |page= 79 |year= |short=1}}blank verse
Gawain PoetCleanness{{sort|1360|late 14th century}}1,813 linesalliterative verse
Gawain PoetPearl{{sort|1360| late 14th century}}1212 linesalliterative verse
Gawain PoetSir Gawain and the Green Knight{{sort|1360|late 14th century}}2,530 linesalliterative verse
AnonymousGenerides{{sort|1375|late 14th century}}6696 linesrhyme royal
Glover, RichardLeonidas1737blank verse
Gower, John

|Confessio Amantis

|{{circa|1390|sortable=yes}}

|33,000 lines

|rhymed couplets

Greening, JohnFotheringhay1995
Greening, JohnGascoigne's Egg2000
Greening, JohnOmm Sety2001
Greening, JohnThe Silence2019
Thomas HoccleveRegiment of Princes1410–14135,464 linesSeven-line decasyllabic rhymed stanzas
Howe, SusanThe Liberties1980
Hughes, LangstonMontage of a Dream Deferred1951
Jones, DavidThe Anathemata1952
Jones, DavidIn Parenthesis1937
Kaye, John BrayshawTrial of Christ in Seven Stages1909blank verse
Kaye, John BrayshawVashti1894blank verse
Keats, JohnEndymion1818{{circa|4,100|sortable=yes}}heroic couplet
AnonymousKing Alisaunder{{circa|1300|sortable=yes}}4,000 linesoctosyllabic couplets
AnonymousKing Horn{{circa|1225|sortable=yes}}1,650 linesrhyming couplets with occasional alliterative metre
Langland, WilliamPiers Plowman{{Circa|1370–90|sortable=yes}}{{Circa|7,300|sortable=yes}} linesalliterative metre
AnonymousLaud Troy Book{{circa|1400|sortable=yes}}18,664 linestetrameter couplets
Lawrance, William VicarsThe Story of Judeth1889heroic couplet
LayamonBrut{{circa|1190–1215|sortable=yes}}{{circa|16,095|sortable=yes}} 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 rhyme
Lydgate, JohnThe Fall of the Princes1431–143936,365 linesrhyme royal
Lydgate, JohnSiege of Thebes1420–14224,716 linesrhyme royal
Lydgate, JohnTroy Book1412–2030,117 linesten-syllable couplets
Longfellow, Henry WadsworthEvangeline18471396 lineshexameter
Longfellow, Henry WadsworthThe Song of Hiawatha18555,414 linesoctosyllable
Robert MannyngHandlyng Synne{{circa|1303|sortable=yes}}{{circa|12,000|sortable=yes}} linesfour-stress rhyme royal
Masefield, JohnDauber1912rhyme royal
Meek, Alexander BeaufortThe Red Eagle. A Poem of the South1855
Melville, HermanClarel187618,000 linesirregularly rhymed iambic tetrameter
Miles, Sibella ElizabethThe Wanderer of Scandinavia, or Sweden Delivered1826Spenserian stanza
Milton, JohnParadise Lost166710,565 linesblank verse
Milton, JohnParadise Regained16712,070 linesblank verse
Milton, JohnSamson Agonistes16711,758 linesblank verse
Moon, George WashingtonElijah the Prophet1866blank verse
Morris, WilliamThe Earthly Paradise1868–1870various
Morris, WilliamThe Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs187610,000+ linesalliterative verse
Ogilvie, JohnBritannia1801blank verse
Olson, CharlesMaximus Poems1953–1975
OrrmOrmulum1150–118018,956 linesunrhymed strict heptameter
Peterson, Joseph G.Inside the Whale2011
Pound, EzraCantos1915–62free verse
AnonymousPrick of Conscience{{circa|1325–1350|sortable=yes}}{{circa|9,600|sortable=yes}} linesoctosyllabic couplets
Robinson, Edwin ArlingtonMerlin1917{{Circa|2,560|sortable=yes}} linesblank verse
Seymer, John GunningThe Fall of Saul1839blank verse
Shakespeare, WilliamThe Rape of Lucrece15941,855 linesrhyme royal
Shelley, Percy ByssheQueen Mab18132,289 lines
Shelley, Percy ByssheThe Revolt of Islam18174,818 linesSpenserian stanza
Southey, RobertJoan of Arc1796
Southey, RobertThalaba the Destroyer1801
Southey, RobertMadoc1805
Southey, RobertRoderick the Last of the Goths1814
Spenser, EdmundThe Faerie Queene{{Cite web|url=https://www.poemist.com/edmund-spenser/the-faerie-queene-book-iii-canto-vi|title = The Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto Vi by Edmund Spenser | Poemist}}1590, 159634,928 linesSpenserian stanza
Stanford, FrankThe Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You197715,283 lines
Stein, GertrudeStanzas in Meditation1956
Swinburne, Algernon CharlesTristram of Lyonesse18824,488 linesheroic couplet
Thomson, JamesThe Castle of Indolence17481,422 linesSpenserian stanza
Thomson, JamesThe Seasons17305,405 linesblank verse
Tighe, MaryPsyche, or the Legend of Love{{Cite web|url=https://www.poemist.com/mary-tighe/psyche-or-the-legend-of-love-canto-ii|title=Psyche ; or, the Legend of Love: Canto Ii. By Mary Tighe | Poemist}}18053,348 linesSpenserian stanza
Tolkien, J. R. R.The Lay of Leithian19854,223 linesrhyming couplets
Tolkien, J. R. R.The Lay of the Children of Húrin19852,276 linesalliterative verse
Tolson, Melvin B.Harlem Gallery1965
Townsend, GeorgeArmageddon1815blank verse
Walcott, DerekOmeros1990{{Circa|8,000|sortable=yes}}terza rima, free verse
Whitman, WaltSong of Myself18811346 linesfree verse
Williams, Saul, said the shotgun to the head2006
Williams, William CarlosPaterson1946–58
Wordsworth, WilliamThe Prelude1850blank verse
Zukofsky, Louis"A"1928–78free verse

References

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