We recognize a narrative or epical poetry; we recognize drama; in both of these, when the individual inspiration is strong, there is much that trembles on the verge of the lyrical.
One final word must be said regarding the interest of epical material.
Besides, its earliest poems are of a purely lyrical and not of an epical type.
It is wonderful that so little recognition has been given in literature to the epical dignity and beauty of the biblical legends of Solomon.
The legend of the Queen of Sheba forms not only a poetic prologue to the epical tradition of Solomon's wisdom, but has a substantial connexion with the character of that wisdom, to whose final personification she contributed.
Epical mythology attained to final development in the free artistic creations of Sophocles.
These, however, include the epical compositions of Theocritus, who might well have assumed a different manner when treating of Hercules or the Dioscuri from that in which he sang the loves of Lycidas and Daphnis.
In the islands, the tale has an epical form, and is chanted in a poem of twenty-six stanzas.
On the other hand, when Hahn tells us that epical myths are now sung in the dances in honour of warriors lately slain (p.
The national epic of Finland, the Kalevala, or Place of Heroes, stands midway between the purely epical structure, as exemplified in Homer, and the epic songs of certain nations.
Lönnrot travelled over Finland, collecting the songs, which he published, arranged in epical form, in 1835.
Epical and crude though their structure is, the two plays possess a firmer organization and a greater unity than any preceding popular tragedy.
Topelius, who collected eighty epical fragments of the Kalevala, spent the last eleven years of his life in bed, afflicted with a fatal disease.
If he has not the grand simplicity of epic treatment, he has at least something of the largeness of vision that belongs to the epical temper.
But the most remarkable point of contact between Drayton and Theocritus is that both are epical as well as pastoral poets.
This is to say that Drayton’s genius was naturally not so much epical as lyrical and descriptive.
A remarkable circumstance, nevertheless, while encouraging this epical impulse, deprived its most important creations of the external epical form.
I was lucky enough to be present at the revival of this epical composition at Berlin in the Neues Theatre, October, 1904.
And while the Wagner comedy was all grace, sweetness, and light and only epical in its vast machinery of narration, The Weavers was a quivering transcript from life--and such life!
But the substance derives more from that extraordinary book of an extraordinary poet, Les Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud, than from the ragged, epical lines of Whitman.
In 1593 appeared the first of Drayton's historical poems, The Legend of Piers Gaveston, and the next year saw the publication of Matilda, an epicalpoem in rhyme royal.
It is plain that Charles Dickens had nothing of that epical gift which gave us Tom Jones and Ivanhoe.
But as a poem may have lyrical qualities without being a lyric, so a poem may have epical qualities without being an epic.
The text ends with the line, "Oh praise Innini," the literary note characteristic ofepical compositions.
As to the architecture of the Kalevala, it stands midway between the epical ballads of the Servians and the purely epical structure of the Iliad.
Through the collections of these scholars so many additional parts of the epical treasure of Finland were made public that a new edition of the Kalevala soon became an imperative necessity.
The following translation was undertaken from a desire to lay before the English-speaking people the full treasury of epical beauty, folklore, and mythology comprised in The Kalevala, the national epic of the Finns.
In the islands, the tale has an epical form, and is chanted in a poem of twenty- six stanzas.
We feel it is epical when man with one wild arrow strikes a distant bird.
Is it not also epical when man with one wild engine strikes a distant station?
Mr. Symonds remarks interestingly on the "difference between Shaksperian and Miltonic, between dramatic and epical blank verse.
Originally instituted for the drama, it received in Milton's hands an epical treatment, and has by authors of our own day been used for idyllic and even for lyrical compositions.
Turgenev, less epical than Gogol, was also studious of local habits and dexterous in describing them.
La Motte, as celebrated in his own time as he is forgotten in ours, was lyricist, fabulist, dramatic orator, epical even after a certain fashion.
There are pages of epical breadth and power, passages of elemental vigour and ferocity--passages, again, of an exquisite tenderness and poignancy.
His four sonatas for the piano are planned upon truly heroic lines; they are large in scope and of epical sweep and breadth; and his "Indian" suite is the most impressive orchestral work composed by an American.
No doubt the force of tradition, which culminated in the Middle Ages, had much to do with this unity of epical design and ornament.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "epical" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
