Poetry

===Epic poetry===
{{Main|Epic poetry}}
[[File:Camões, por Fernão Gomes.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Camões]]]]
Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form of [[narrative]] literature. This genre is often defined as lengthy poems concerning events of a heroic or important nature to the culture of the time. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a [[hero]]ic or [[mythological]] person or group of persons.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hainsworth |first=J. B. |title=Traditions of heroic and epic poetry |publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-947623-19-7 |pages=171–175}}</ref> Examples of epic poems are [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'', [[Virgil]]'s [[Aeneid]], the ''[[Nibelungenlied]]'', [[Luís de Camões]]' ''[[Os Lusíadas]]'', the ''[[Cantar de Mio Cid]]'', the ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', the ''[[Mahabharata]]'', [[Lönnrot]]'s ''[[Kalevala]]'', [[Valmiki]]'s ''[[Ramayana]]'', [[Ferdowsi]]'s ''[[Shahnama]]'', [[Nizami Ganjavi|Nizami]] (or Nezami)'s Khamse (Five Books), and the ''[[Epic of King Gesar]]''. While the composition of epic poetry, and of [[long poem]]s generally, became less common in the west after the early 20th century, some notable epics have continued to be written. ''[[The Cantos]]'' by [[Ezra Pound]], ''[[Helen in Egypt]]'' by [[H.D.]], and ''[[Paterson (poem)|Paterson]]'' by [[William Carlos Williams]] are examples of modern epics. [[Derek Walcott]] won a [[Nobel prize]] in 1992 to a great extent on the basis of his epic, ''[[Omeros]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1992/press.html |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 1992: Derek Walcott |publisher=Swedish Academy |access-date=10 December 2011}}</ref>