Long poem

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The long poem is a literary genre including all poetry of considerable length. Though the definition of a long poem is vague and broad, the genre includes some of the most important poetry ever written.

The long poem traces its origins to the ancient epics, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. In English, Beowulf, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Edmund Spenser's (The Faerie Queene), are among the first important long poems. The long poem thrived and gained new vitality in the hands of experimental Modernists in the early 1900’s and has continued to evolve through the 21st century.

The long poem has evolved into an umbrella term, encompassing many subgenres, including epic, verse novel, verse narrative, lyric sequence, lyric series, and collage/montage. In contemporary poetry, the long poem has become a space for the emergent voices of underprivileged writers including women, post-colonial subjects, the gay and lesbian community, and racially/ethnically oppressed persons, who seek the definitive communal voice connoted by early long poems.

Contents 1 Definitions 1.1 Generic indeterminacy 1.2 Length and meaning 2 Purposes 2.1 Tale of the tribe 2.2 Revisionary mythopoesis 2.3 Cultural commentary 3 History 4 Concerns and controversies 4.1 Fears of the writer 4.2 Generic conundrums 5 Advantages of the long poem genre 6 Female authors in the genre of long poem 7 Genealogy 8 Subgenres 8.1 Epic 8.2 Lyric sequence 8.3 Lyric series 8.4 Collage/Montage 8.5 Verse-novel 8.6 Verse-narrative 8.7 Romantic long poem 8.8 Meditations 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References

[edit] Definitions

[edit] Generic indeterminacy

The definition of "long poem" is subject to critical debate. There is no easy answer to this controversial and contentious question. Susan Friedman says "A 'long poem' is a 'big poem,' that is a poem that situates itself in a long tradition of poems that ask very big questions in a very long way."^[1] Critic Lynn Keller indicates the complexity of defining such a term in her description of subgenres such as "narrative poems, verse novels, sonnet sequences, irregular lyric medleys or cycles, collage long poems, meditative sequences, extended dramatic monologues, prose poems, serial poems, heroic epics".^[2] Though these sub-genres differ greatly, they are all constituents of the genre "long poem." Another critic, Sandro Jung firmly states that, "the idea of the long poem as a poetic genre is a twentieth-century effort of scholars to come to terms with an elusive form that finds a variety of expressions in the eighteenth century, there has never been a sustained attempt at defining the generic hybridity of the poem, its formal characteristics, or its poetic techniques."^[3]

[edit] Length and meaning

Lynn Keller describes the long poem as being a poem that is simply "book length," but perhaps the simplest way to define "long poem" is this: a long poem is long enough that its bulk carries meaning. Susan Stanford Friedman describes the long poem as a genre in which all poems that are not considered to be short can be a considered a part. These overly inclusive definitions, though problematic, serve the breadth of the long poem, and have fueled its adaptation as a voice for cultural identity among marginalized persons in Modern and Contemporary poetry. Only a broad definition can apply to the genre as a whole. In general, a poem is a "long poem" when its length enhances and expands upon the thematic, creative, and formal weight of the poem.

Though the term "long poem" may be elusive to define, the term is now finally getting the attention it deserves. The genre has gained importance both as a literary form, and as a means of collective expression. Lynn Keller solidifies the genre's importance in her essay, "Pushing the Limits," by stating that the long poem will always be recognized as a notable genre of importance in early twentieth-century American literature.^[4]

[edit] Purposes

[edit] Tale of the tribe

long poem often functions to tell a "tale of the tribe," or a story that encompasses a whole culture's values and history. Ezra Pound coined the phrase, referring to his own long poem The Cantos. The long poem's length and scope can contain concerns of a magnitude that a shorter poem cannot address. The poet may see himself or herself as the "bearer of the light," to use Langston Hughes' term, who leads the journey through a culture's story, or as the one who makes known the light already within the tribe. The poet may also serve as a poet-prophet with special insight for his or her own tribe.

In Modern and Contemporary long poems the "tale of the tribe" has frequently been retold by culturally, economically, and socially marginalized persons. Thus, pseudo-epic narratives, such as Derek Walcott's "Omeros," have emerged to occupy voids where post colonial persons, racially oppressed persons, women, and other people who have been ignored by classic epics, and denied a voice in the prestigious genre.

[edit] Revisionary mythopoesis

Various poets have undertaken a "revisionary mythopoesis" in the long poem genre. Since the genre has roots in forms that traditionally exclude poets who have minimal cultural authority, the long poem can be a "fundamental re-vision," and function as a discourse for those poets (Friedman). These "re-visions" may include foregrounding of peripheral or otherwise neglected characters, deflation of traditionally celebrated characters, and a general reworking of standards set by the literary tradition. This revision is noted especially by feminist critical work that analyzes how women are given a new voice and story through the transformation of a previously "masculine" form. Consider the various revisions of the myth of Helen of Troy which has, in modern literature, been undertaken by such poets as Walcott (Omeros), and H.D. (Helen of Egypt).

[edit] Cultural commentary

Lynn Keller notes that the long poem enabled modernists to include sociological, anthropological, and historical material. Many long poems deal with history not in the revisionary sense but as a simple re-telling in order to prove a point. Then there are those who go a step further and recite a place's or people's history in order to teach. Like revisionary mythopoesis, they may attempt to make a point or demonstrate a new perspective by exaggerating or editing certain parts of a history.

[edit] History

Although the long poem has traceable ancestry for several thousand years, Walt Whitman's Song of Myself is a good recent example of the lyric-epic fusion by which we now characterize the long poem. Song of Myself was first published untitled in 1855 as part of Whitman's larger collection Leaves of Grass. It underwent numerous revisions at Whitman's hand until just before his death in 1892. Whitman was among the first American poets in recent history to attempt a "tale of the tribe" for the United States. From this tim the long poem has continued to evolve and gain statue as a legitimate genre of poetry.

[edit] Concerns and controversies

[edit] Fears of the writer

Long poem authors sometimes find great difficulty in making the entire poem coherent and/or deciding on a way to end it or wrap it up. Fear of failure is also a common concern, that perhaps the poem will not have as great as impact as intended. Since many long poems take the author's lifetime to complete, this concern is especially troubling to anyone who attempts the long poem. Ezra Pound is an example of this dilemma, with his poem Cantos.^[5] As the long poem's roots lie in the epic, authors of the long poem often feel an intense pressure to make their long poems the defining literature of the national identity or the shared identity of a large group of people. The American long poem is under pressure from its European predecessors, revealing a special variety of this anxiety. Walt Whitman tried to achieve this idea of characterizing the American identity in Song of Myself. Thus, when the author feels that his or her works fails to reach such a caliber or catalyze a change within the intended audience, he or she might consider the poem a failure as a whole.

Poets attempting to write a long poem often struggle to find the right form or combination of forms to use. Since the long poem itself cannot be strictly defined by one certain form, a challenge lies in choosing the most effective form.^[6]

[edit] Generic conundrums

Inclusivity

Long poem has been considered a problematic genre for women writers. Its roots in epic make the genre appear to be non-inclusive of female writers. This is due to the epic's long history of being primarily a realm of writing for men.^[7]

Lyric intensity

Some critics, most emphatically Edgar Allan Poe, consider poetry as a whole to be more closely tied to the lyric. They complain that the emotional intensity involved within a lyric is impossible to maintain in the length of the long poem, thus rendering the long poem impossible or inherently a failure.^[8]

In his article "The long poem: sequence or consequence?" Ted Weiss quotes a passage from M. L. Rozenthal and Sally M. Gall's "The Modern Poetic Sequence" inspired by Poe's sentiments, "What we term a long poem is, in fact, merely a succession of brief ones.... It is needless to demonstrate that a poem is such, only inasmuch as it intensely excites, by elevating, the soul; and all intense excitements are, through a psychal-necessity, brief. For this reason, at least one half of the Paradise Lost is essentially prose -- a succession of poetical excitements interspersed, inevitably,with corresponding depressions -- the whole being deprived, through the extremities of its length, of the vastly important artistic element, totality, or unity, of effect. In short, a poem to be truly a poem should not exceed a half hour's reading. In any case, no unified long poem is possible."^[9]

Multivocality

One genre theory claims that once a poem takes on multiple voices, it becomes a novel. Many long poems do make use of multiple voices, while still maintaining all the element of a poem, and therefore cause even more confusion when trying to define their genre.^{[citation needed]}

Naming and subgenres

Critic Lynn Keller also expresses concerns about the genre in her essay, "Pushing the Limits." Keller states that due to the debate over and prevalence of subgenres and forms within the overarching genre of long poem, critics and readers tend to choose one subgenre, typically the epic form, as being the "authentic" representative form of the genre. Therefore, this causes the other, equally important subgenres, to be subject to criticism for not adhering to the more "authentic" form of long poem.^[10] Other critics of the long poem sometimes hold the belief that with long poems, there is no "middle ground." They view long poems as ultimately being either epics or lyrics.^{[citation needed]}

Many critics refer to the long poem by various adjective-filled sub-genre names that often are comprised of various components found within the poem. These can lead to confusion about what a long poem is exactly. Below you will find a list describing the most common (and agreed upon) sub-genre categories.^[11]

[edit] Advantages of the long poem genre

The long poem genre has several advantages over prose and strictly lyric poetry. The most obvious difference between the long poem and other literary genres is the sheer difficulty of composing a long work entirely in verse. Poets who undertake the long poem face the serious problem of creating a work that is consistently poetic, sometimes taking strict forms and carrying them through the whole poem. However, the poets who do choose the long poem turn this liability into an advantage: if a poet can write a long poem, they prove themselves to be worthy. The very difficulty gives the genre an implicit prestige. long poems have been among the most influential texts in the world since Homer. By writing a long poem, a poet participates in this tradition and must prove their virtuosity by living up to the tradition. As discussed below, the traditionally difficult long poem's prestige can be revised to serve radical purposes.

Additional benefits of the long poem:

• The long poem provides the artist with a greater space to create great meaning.
• A long poem allows the author to be encyclopedic in their treatment of the world, as opposed to the the potentially narrow focus of the lyric.
• A long poem poet can work on a long poem their entire life, weaving in their impressions gleaned form the span of several generations (and historical events); it can be an ongoing work.
• A long poem can encapsulate not just traditional poetry, but incorporate dialogue, prose passages, and even scripting.
• A reader can absorb an entire world view from a long poem.

[edit] Female authors in the genre of long poem

Critic Lynn Keller voices the concerns of long poems by women in her essay, "Pushing the Limits." In this article, she discusses the long poem in regards to its female contributors, a group often forgotten or marginalized in favor of the more privileged white male authorship. Not only does Keller discuss women and their place in the authorship of the long poem, but she also talks about the tendency of the genre to not only forget about female authors but also any authors who are not white and male, therefore leaving out minority writers, foreign writers, and writers of different sexual orientation.^[12]

Keller explains the long poem as being a "generic hybrid."^[13] By this, Keller means that the form, due in large part to its indefinable nature, gives authors creative leeway to mold and form the genre of long poem to fit their creative needs. The long poem's flexibility should not only be open to include women and minority writers, but should be a haven in which these writers can use their writing to voice their identity, a primary topic for the long poem genre.

As stated above in "Concerns and Controversies," many female writers have felt that they have no place with the long poem genre due to its epic roots. The epic is a historically masculine genre and has not welcomed female writers or other authors who are not male and white. The long poem is often understood as the epic reborn, making it seem like a genre inaccessible to women. Women who did participate within the long poem and epic forms were often highly criticized or over-looked until recently, as there has been increasing interest in such authors as H.D.

Keller also discusses a primary critic of the long poem, Kamboureli, in her essay. Kamboureli's stance is that long poem's readers and contributors should not preference one form of long poem over another. To extend this idea, it is also equally important to say that one type of author within this genre should not be privileged over another. The textual "betweeness," an idea coined by Kamboureli and discussed in Keller's essay, provides a place where writers can create their art in a genre that is by its nature less-restrictive than other poetic forms. This lack of restriction should be the very reason that the genre should be open to all. Its hybridisms and variety will only be enhanced by the presence of women and other writers.

Keller states that this new perspective on long poem and reexamination of forgotten long poems has revived the form as a realm of possibilities for upcoming female writers. Female writers are seeing the long poem as a genre that should not only be open and inclusive to them, but also as a genre that theoretically could benefit the female writer as much if not more than the male writers the form previously favored. Women writers are now able to combat the "dominant traditions" at play within the long poem genre to mold the genre into their own creating what critic Susan Friedman terms a "re-vision"of the form.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the first female authors to attempt an epic poem. In her article "Written in blood: the art of mothering epic in the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Olivia Gatti Taylor explores Browning's attempt to write an authentically feminine epic poem, titled Aurora Leigh. Taylor posits that Browning began this process with the structure of her poem, "While earlier epics like the Aeneid and Paradise Lost have twelve books, Aurora Leigh was conceived as a nine-book epic; thus, the very structure of the work reveals its gestational nature. According to Sandra Donaldson, Barrett Browning's own experience at age forty-three of "giving birth and nurturing a child" greatly influenced her poetry "for the better," deepening her "sensitivity."

[edit] Genealogy

The most important "parent genre" to the long poem is the epic. As stated on the page of the main article on the epic, "An epic is a lengthy, revered narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation." The term "long poem" includes all the generic expectations of epic and the reactions against those expectations. Many long poem sub-genres share characteristics with the epic, including: telling the tale of a tribe or a nation, quests, history (either recitation or re-telling in order to learn from the past), a hero figure, or prophecies.

Other sub-genres of the long poem include lyric sequence, series, collage, and verse-novel. What unites each of these subgenres under the heading of long poem is that their length has importance in their meaning. Each subgenre, however, is unique in its style, manner of composition, voice, narration, and proximity to outside genres.

Sequence poetry uses the chronological linking of poems to construct meaning, as each lyric builds on the poems previous to it. Examples include Louise Glück's The Wild Iris, and older sonnet cycles, such as Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella or Dante's Vita Nuova. Serial lyrics similarly depend on the juxtaposition and dialogue between individual lyrics to build a greater depth of meaning. Narrative poems rely heavily on the tradition of narrative voice found within genres such as the novel and drama.

Often, these subgenres are blended, blurred or overlapped to create second-generation subgenres. The blurring between the lines of the subgenres is what makes the long poem so hard to define, but it also marks the growing creativity in the use of the form.

[edit] Subgenres

[edit] Epic

Critic Joseph Conte describes the epic as a long poem that "has to have grand voice and purpose... it has to say something big."^[14] Lynn Keller describes one of the epic's aspects as including a "quasi-circular quest-journey structure" that she says is present in the long poem Song of Myself by Whitman. Yet that long poem, Keller notes, does not have a "specified end toward which the poem or speaker is directed," unlike a more traditional long poem. Though long poems do have roots in the epic form, that does not mean long poems that are epic-like are completely epic. A second example of long poems distancing themselves from the traditional epic form is seen in Helen In Egypt by H.D. Though traditional epics feature physical quests or journeys, Helen In Egypt is about the psychological journey of Helen.

Other characteristics of the epic include a hero figure, myths, and quests for the characters. Many such characteristics are seen in various long poems, but with some changes. For example, Helen In Egypt brings mythic revision, or revisionary mythopoesis, into play. Even though it includes the myth from the epic, the revised telling of the myth makes the long poem stand out as its own form. Additionally, one cannot look at the epic as a single, unified form of inspiration for long poems. As Keller points out, certain long poems can have roots in very specific epics instead of the overall epic category.

The long poem Omeros by Derek Walcott has drawn mixed criticism on whether it should or should not be tied to the traditional epic form. Those against that idea say that the poem's story is not as important as those found in traditional epics. Omeros tells the tale of fishermen in the Caribbean fighting over and lusting after a waitress instead of a typically heroic tale of battles and quests. On the other side of the argument lies the point that it is important to keep in mind that Omeros has ties to the epic genre, if only as a contrast. By putting more simple characters in the forefront as opposed to warriors, Walcott revises the traditional epic form, which these critics say is something to notice as opposed to cutting off Omeros from any ties to the epic whatsoever. Furthermore, these critics say that one cannot ignore the epic influence on the poem since its characters' names are taken from Homer. In Omeros there are distinct epic elements such as a trip to the underworld, talk of a muse, etc, so those are also obviously influenced by traditional epics.

In interviews, Walcott has both affirmed and denied that Omeros is tied to the epic form. In one interview he stated that is was a type of epic poem, but in another interview he said the opposite, stating as part of his evidence that there are no epic-like battles in his poem. In Omeros Walcott implies that he has never read Homer, which is probably untrue based on the character names derived from Homer. Walcott's denial of his poem being tied too heavily to the epic form may stem from his concern that people might only think of it as being an epic-influenced poem instead of trancending the epic genre.

Based on this criticism of Omeros it is clear that the generic identity of a long poem greatly contributes to its meaning. Because long poems are influenced by many more strictly defined genres, a long poem revising strict generic rules creates striking contrast with epic-genre expectations.

Keller also notes that she agrees with critic Susan Friedman when Friedman expresses her concern that the long poem associated with the epic has been "the quintessential male territory whose boundaries enforce women's staus as outsiders on the landscape of poetry." considering that there are many long poem authors that are women, one cannot fully associte the long poem with the epic genre.

[edit] Lyric sequence

A lyric sequence a sub-genre of the long poem. A lyric sequence is a collection of shorter lyric poems that intereact to create a coherent, larger meaning. The lyric sequence often includes poems unified by theme. A defining characteristic of this subgenre is that each lyric enhances the meaning of the other lyrics in the work, creating an enhanced collective metaphor, and opens the lyric sequence to unique adaptations of dialogue, and other narrative/theatrical characteristics.

Critic Lynn Keller lends some insight to the lyric sequence by placing in opposition to the epic: “At the opposite end of the critical spectrum are the treatments of the long poem that do not consider issues of quest, hero, community, nation, history and the like, and instead regard the form as essentially lyric. Seen through this lens, the long poem explores largely private (though possibly representative) sensibility and emotion, usually through focused moments of autobiography.“^[15]

[edit] Lyric series

The lyric series is a genre of poetry in which the seriality of short (but connective) lyric poems enhances the long poem's meaning. Seriality may contribute narrative coherence or thematic development, and it is often read in terms of the poem's productive process, i.e. how the poem "produces its own experience"(Shoptaw). Each lyric poem is distinct and has meaning in itself, yet it functions as an integral part of the series, giving it a greater meaning as within the long poem as well.

Deborah Sinnreich-Levi and Ian Laurie examine the work of Oton de Grandson in the lyric series, or "ballad series" form. Grandson wrote several sets of short love lyrics, using the series form for narrative coherence and thematic construction, as well as to examine different aspects of a single narrative. George Oppen's Discrete Series relates its poetic seriality to the mathematic concept of a discrete series. Langston Hughes' Montage of a Dream Deferred qualifies as a serial lyric as well as a montage.

[edit] Collage/Montage

The most well known and highly regarded example of a collage long poem is T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Critic Philip Cohen describes Eliot's use of the college in his article "The Waste Land, 1921: Some Developments of the Manuscript's Verse":

"Eliot gradually created a more modernist poem, one which resembles a cubist collage: satiric narratives were abandoned in favor of first of dramatic poetry and then of a bold amalgamation of genres. The speakers shifted from omniscient narrators to a variety of separate-person voices and then to different voices of one shadowy character."^{[citation needed]}

The collage combines seemingly disparate parts or "fragments" of different voices, pieces of mythology, popular song, speeches, and other utterances in an attempt to create a somewhat cohesive whole.

A montage is similar to a collage in that it consists of many voices, most famously portrayed in Langston Hughes' Montage of a Dream Deferred. The poet provides a comprehensive portrait of 20th century Harlem through the use of numerous different voices, and thus creates a cohesive whole through this fragmentary lens.

What is perhaps the most debatable characteristic of this collage/montage form is the question of what is added to the message or content of the poem by using a more fragmented view. This debate is clearly visible within Langston Hughes' Montage in the question of who the primary voice belongs to and what is added by having Harlem shown through multiple people, as opposed to Hughes simply speaking from his own understanding of what makes Harlem.

[edit] Verse-novel

According to critic Patrick D. Murphy, "critics rely too frequently on analyzing modern poems by means of historical genre definitions that define poems written in previous centuries but bear little resemblance to currently produced poems."^[16] In order to represent a new genre of American poetry, Murphy proposes that the verse novel is the predominant genre in American long poems today.^[17] This variety has its history in both Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Byron's Don Juan, both self-declared verse novels, pulling elements from different parts of the literary tradition, comic epic and novel among them.

Many American long poems evolve the narrative through a series of "speech events", thus falling close to the form of a novel, but are still written in verse. A development of plot through these speech events is essential to categorize a poem as a verse nove. otherwise it may be simply considered a "lyric, dramatic, or prose poem."

Verse-novels also have recently moved closer to language used in everyday speech, and have shunned the elevated or classical poetic language commonly associated with earlier long poems, indicating a move toward the novel.

The novelization of American long poetry can be seen as liberating in that it makes it possible to categorize it as a poem outside the common realms of an "epic", "romance," or other category which may be found limiting to both writers, readers and critics.

[edit] Verse-narrative

A verse narrative, as one might expect, is simply a narrative poem, a poem that tells a story. What is interesting about this subgenre is that due to its place in the flexible category of long poem, the verse-narrative may have disrupted convention by telling its story in both poem and narrative. This combination broadens the scope of both genres, lending the poem's depth that may be lacking in the other sub-genres, yet also a lyrical voice that defines it as poetry. For an example of this, one might turn Gilgamesh, which encompasses both the sub-genres Epic and Verse-Narrative.

As one of the main sub-genres, Verse-Narrative gets the least attention because it so effortlessly overlaps the other sub-genres. It doesn't necessarily have the components of an Epic, nor the lyricism and shifting scope of a Lyric Sequence or a Lyric Series, nor the close relation to narrative of Verse Novel. It exists for critics generally as an accepted part of the long poem Tradition.

[edit] Romantic long poem

The critic Lilach Lachman describes the Romantic long poem as one that, "questioned the coherence of the conventional epic's plot, its logic of time and space, and its laws of interconnecting the narrative through action." An example of the Romantic long poem is Keats' long poem Hyperion(1820).

The Romance long poem contains many of the same components of the Romance Lyric. Michael O'Neil suggests that "much romantic poetry is torn out of its own despair" and, in fact, can exist as the tremulous fusion between "self-trust and self-doubt."

[edit] Meditations

Meditations are reflective thought poems. Like the Montage and the Series subgenres Meditations can be somewhat fragmented, yet their connectivity is what makes the long poem a coherent and cohesive idea. This subgenre is based in meditations (or thoughts) which, Wallace Stevens believes, as do other writes in this genre, do not rely on the use of multiple voices.

In her essay "The Twentieth Century long poem," Lynn Keller states that a more philosophical influence on these meditative long poems deals with relating imagination to reality, specifically in long poems by Wallace Stevens. Keller notes, "Uninterested in American landscape, American history, modern mechanical triumphs, or the urban scene, his process-oriented long poems are speculative philosophical works exploring the relation of imagination to reality and the imagination's role in compensating for the loss of religious belief."

[edit] See also

• List of long poems in English

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Conte, Joseph (Spring & Fall 1992), “Seriality and the Contemporary Long Poem”, Sagetrieb (no. 11): 35-45 .

• Friedman. “When a ‘Long’ Poem Is a ‘Big’ Poem: Self Authorizing Strategies in Women’s Twentieth-Century ‘Long Poems.’” LIT 2 (1990): 9-25.

• Friedman, Susan Stanford. “’Born of One Mother:’ Re-Vision of Patriarchal Tradition.” Psyche Reborn: The Emergence of H.D. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1981. 253-272.

• Jung, Sandro (Spring 2007), “Epic, Ode, or Something New: The Blending of Genres in Thomson's "Spring"”, Papers on Language & Literature 43 (2): 146-165, <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25164804&site=ehost-live>. Retrieved on 1 April 2008 .

• Keller, Lynn (1997), “Pushing the Limits of Genre and Gender: Women's Long Poems as Forms of Expansion”, Forms of Expansion: Recent Long Poems by Women, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN ??? .

• Keller. “The Twentieth-Century Long Poem,” in Jay Parini, ed. The Columbia History of American Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993: 534-563.

• Lachman, Lilach. "Keats's Hyperion: Time, Space, and the Long Poem" in Poetics Today, Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring, 2001, pp. 89-127.

• Miller, James E., Jr. "The Care and Feeding of Long Poems: The American Epic from Barlow to Berryman". The American Quest for a Supreme Fiction: Whitman's Legacy in the Personal Epic. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.

• Murphy, Patrick D. (January, 1989), “The Verse Novel: A Modern American Poetic Genre”, College English 51 (1): 57-72, <http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0010-0994%28198901%2951%3A1%3C57%3ATVNAMA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-3>. Retrieved on 4 April 2008 .

• O'Neill, Michael. "'Driven as in surges': texture and voice in Romantic poetry." Wordsworth Circle 38.3, Summer 2007), 5-7.

• "Oton de Grandson," in 'Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 208: Literature of the French and Occitan Middle Ages: Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book.' Edited by Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi, Stevens Institute of Technology and Ian S. Laurie, Flinders University. The Gale Group, 1999, pp. 141-148.

• Poe, Edgar Allan, The Poetic Principle .

• Shoptaw, John, "Lyric Incorporated: The Serial Object of George Oppen and Langston Hughes," in Sagetrieb, Vol. 12, No. 3, Winter, 1993, pp. 105-24. Reprinted in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 107. Reproduced in Literature Resource Center.

• Taylor, Olivia Gatti. "Written in Blood: The Art of Mothering Epic in the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning." Victorian Poetry, 44:2 (2006 Summer), pp. 153-64.

• Vickery, Walter N. "Alexander Pushkin", In Twayne's World Authors Series Online New York: G. K. Hall & Co., 1999 Previously published in print in 1992 by Twayne Publishers. Source database: Twayne's World Authors.

• Weiss, Tedd (July-August, 1993), “The long poem: sequence or consequence?”, The American Poetry Review 22 (4): 37-48 .