epic poet
Long-form storyteller
An epic poet composes epics—long narrative poems recounting heroic deeds, mythological events, or the founding of nations.
Homer, Virgil, and Milton are the canonical examples.
The term carries weight: calling someone an epic poet implies work of grand scope and elevated style, not just any poet who writes long verse.
- oral performanceSpoken presentation to listeners
- sagaExtended heroic narrative
- HomerAncient Greek epic composer
- DanteItalian epic poet
- bardPoet of epics
Virgil · oral tradition · skald · in medias res · wine-dark sea · Apollonius · tale · Beowulf · invocation · Spenser · muse · heroism · Gilgamesh · heroic age · Ovid · Milton · narrative · lyre
- poetsHomer, Dante, Milton, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost
- storytellersstorytellers, narrator, narrators, tale-teller, tale spinner
poetic form and scale
epic poetlyric poet
Author of songlike verse
lyricist · epigrammatist · sonneteer · imagist · miniaturist
literary mode
epic poetprose writer
One composing unmetered text
novelist · short story writer · essayist · diarist · journalist