The Greatest (Long) Poems of All Time
A rule of thumb for the long poems listed here, contrasted with the verse on the Greatest (Short) Poems list, is that these generally cannot be read in a single sitting. They range in length from a dozen dense pages to entire books, even multiple volumes. Reading times that do full justice to the poems can stretch from an hour or two to a lifetime. Long poems also tend to present a complexity of theme and story not found in briefer poetry.
Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate a thick multi-part poem from a collection of discrete poems. For our purposes here, long poems are considered distinct from poetry collections in that its verses are usually connected in an overarching narrative, as in epic poetry. Admittedly though, the categories can overlap and subjective judgments are sometimes needed.
However, this list of long poems is a little easier to compile than that of short poems. Epics and other extended verse have been out of fashion for many years now, so there are fewer recent works to weigh. The long-available older works have also had time to settle in public and critical valuations.
Still, as with all our other lists, revisions and updates will continue as research and public tastes dictate.
Latest update: March 15, 2024
The 111 greatest long poems
In chronological order
BCE
c.2100–1200 BCE
Babylon,
poem
The Descent of Inanna
Anonymous,
Sumer,
poem
c.600 BCE–200 CE
Ramayana
Valmiki,
India,
poem
c.400 BCE–400 CE
Mahabharata
Vyasa Vyasa,
India,
poem
c.270–240
Aetia
Callimachus,
Greece,
poem
c.250
Voyage of the Argonauts
Apollonius of Rhodes,
Greece,
poem
c.50
On the Nature of Things
Lucretius,
Rome,
Didactic poem
29 BCE
Georgics
Virgil,
Rome,
poem
c.29-19E
Aeneid
Virgil,
Rome,
poem
c. 10
Art of Love
Rome,
Poem in three books
CE
c.8
The Book of Days
Rome,
Poem in six books
c.500
Hero and Leander
Musaeus Grammaticus,
Greece,
poem
The Tale of an Anklet
Iḷaṅkõ Aṭikaḷ,
India,
poem
61–65
Pharsalia
Lucan,
Rome,
poem
c.79
Argonautica
Valerius Flaccus,
Rome,
poem
The Táin
Anonymous,
Ireland,
poem
Back to top
977–1010
The Book of Kings
Ferdowsi,
Persia,
poem
c.1000–1300
The Poetic Edda
Anonymous,
Iceland,
poem
c.1100
The Song of Roland
Anonymous,
France,
poem
c.1100–1250
Volsungsaga
Anonymous,
Iceland,
poem
c.1140
The Poem of the Cid
Anonymous,
Spain,
poem
c.1140-50
King Rother
Anonymous,
Germany,
poem
c.1200
The Nibelungenlied
Anonymous,
Germany,
poem
1210
Tristan und Isolde
Gottfied von Strassburg,
Germany,
poem
1230–1275
The Romance of the Rose
Guillaume de Lorris, Jean de Meun,
France,
poem
c.1250
The Saga of Burnt Njal
Anonymous,
Iceland,
poem
Mathnawi
Rumi,
Persia,
poem
1258
The Garden
Saadi Shirazi,
Persia,
poetry collection
1307
The Divine Comedy
Alighieri Dante,
Italy,
poem
c.1350
Divan of Hafez
Hafez,
Persia,
poem
1352
The Triumphs
Giovanni Boccaccio,
Italy,
poem
1362
The Vision of Piers the Ploughman
William Langland,
England,
poem
c.1380
Pearl
Anonymous,
England,
poem
c.1382–1386
Troilus and Cressida
Geoffrey Chaucer,
England,
poem
1387
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Anonymous,
England,
poem
1483–1495
Orlando Innamorato
Matteo Maria Boiardo,
Italy,
poem
Back to top
1501
Judita
Marko Marulić,
Croatia,
poem
1516–1532
Orlando Furioso
Ludovico Ariosto,
Italy,
poem
1569–1589
The Araucaniad
Alonso Ercilla,
Spain,
poem
1572
Franciade
Pierre de Ronsard,
France,
poem
The Lusiads
Luis de Camoëns,
Portugal,
poem
1589
The Faerie Queen
Edmund Spenser,
England,
poem
1591
Astrophel and Stella
Philip Sidney,
England,
poem
1613
Solitudes
Luis de Góngora,
Spain,
poem
1616
Les Tragiques
Agrippa D'Aubigné,
France,
poem
1667
Paradise Lost
John Milton,
England,
poem
1671
Samson Agonistes
John Milton,
England,
poem
1711
An Essay on Criticism
England,
poem
1723
La Henriade
Voltaire,
France,
poem
1728–1742
The Dunciad
England,
poem
1785
The Task
William Cowper,
England,
poem
c. 1792
The Epic of Manas
Anonymous,
Kyrgys,
poem
1797
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
England,
poem
Back to top
1805
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
Walter Scott,
Scotland,
poem
1810
The Lady of the Lake
Walter Scott,
Scotland,
poem
1812–1818
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
George Gordon Byron,
England,
poem
1818
Endymion
John Keats,
England,
poem
1819–1824
Don Juan
George Gordon Byron,
England,
poem
1820
Prometheus Unbound
Percy Byssche Shelley,
England,
poem
Ruslan and Ludmila
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia,
poem
1822
The Vision of Judgment
George Gordon Byron,
England,
poem
1823
The Fountain of Bakhchisaray
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia,
poem
1824
Julian and Maddalo
Percy Bysshe Shelley,
England,
poem
1825
Boris Godunov
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia,
poem
1825–1832
Eugene Onegin
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia,
poem
1834
Master Thaddeus
Adam Mickiewicz,
Poland,
poem
1835–1849
Kalevala
Elias Lönnrot,
Poland,
poem
1836
Máj
Karel Hynek Mácha,
Czech,
poem
1837
The Bronze Horseman
Alexander Pushkin,
Russia,
poem
1842
Horatius
Thomas Babington Macauley,
England,
poem
The Demon
Mikhail Lermontov,
Russia,
poem
1847
Evangeline
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
United States,
poem
1850
Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day
Robert Browning,
England,
poem
In Memoriam
Alfred Lord Tennyson,
England,
poem
The Prelude or, Growth of a Poet's Mind
William Wordsworth,
England,
poem
1853–1862
Kalev's Son
Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald,
Estonia,
poem
1855
The Song of Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
United States,
poem
1856
Aurora Leigh
Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
England,
poem
1862
Goblin Market
Christina Rossetti,
England,
poem
1868–1869
The Ring and the Book
Robert Browning,
England,
poem
The Songs of Maldoror
Comte de Lautréamont,
France,
poem
1870–1881
The House of Life
Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
England,
poem
1872–1879
Martín Fierro
José Hernández,
Argentina,
poem
1873
A Season in Hell
Arthur Rimbaud,
France,
Poem
1876
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs
William Morris,
England,
poem
1897
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Oscar Wilde,
Ireland,
poem
Back to top
1914
Platero and I
Juan Ramón Jiménez,
Spain,
Prose poem
1915
A Cloud in Trousers
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Russia,
poem
1918
The Twelve
Alexander Blok,
Russia,
poem
1930
The Bridge
Hart Crane,
United States,
poem
1940–1942
Four Quartets
England,
poem
1944
Arcanum 17
André Breton,
France,
poem
1947
The Heights of Macchu Piccu
Pablo Neruda,
Chile,
poem
The Age of Anxiety
W.H. Auden,
England,
poem
1949
The Anniad
Gwendolyn Brooks,
United States,
poem
1956
Howl
Allen Ginsberg,
United States,
poem
1957
Sunstone
Octavio Paz,
Mexico,
poem
1961
Kaddish
Allen Ginsberg,
United States,
poem
1966
Song of Lawino
Okot p'Bitek,
Uganda,
poem
1973
Moscow–Petushki
Venedikt Yerofeyev,
Russia,
poem
1976–1980
The Changing Light at Sandover
James Merrill,
United States,
poem
1990
Omeros
Derek Walcott,
St. Lucia,
poem
2014
Citizen: An American Lyric
Claudia Rankine,
United States,
poem
Back to top