Bro, you read these poems, bro? They're EPIC!
Few have better expressed the tumultuous rise and fall of civilizations better than the great Epic poets of ancient and modern times. By combining elevated language with war, betrayal, romance, adventure, and a whole lot of reflection, these twenty lengthy tomes have captured the essence of whole peoples in single (albeit gigantic) works, ranging from semi-fictional accounts of war to satirical mockeries of misguided heroism.
Epic poetry–or heroic poetry, as some of the medieval poets have called it–follows a certain time-tested formula to portray such grand representations of heroes and their followers.
