LAC- Poetry Lesson

Poetry

There are many kinds of poems that appear in the genre of poetry. One kind of poetry is epic poetry. An epic is a long narrative poem. In literature, there are many well-known epics. Beowulf, Gilgamesh, and The Odyssey are three epics that are read in many high school classrooms.

Martín Fierro by José Hernández, an Argentinean journalist, poet, and politician, is an important epic poem from Latin America. Although Martín Fierro is an epic, there is a specific genre that exists in Argentina that this poem falls into. Martín Fierro   is an example of the "gauchesque", an Argentine genre of poetry centered around the lives of gauchos. A gaucho is what an American would call a "cowboy." The epic is about a poor gaucho drafted to fight a frontier war against Indians.

As you read the epic for this lesson, try to connect the theme of "Conquering for Independence" along with the themes of 19^th Century Literature regarding establishing an identity.

The Epic Cycle (Hero Cycle)

Typically, each epic contains an epic hero. An epic hero is a brave and noble character in the epic poem who is affected by some major event in life.   Many epic heroes (not all epic heroes) have a tragic flaw, or a characteristic that leads to his downfall.

There is also a cycle that epic heroes go through on their journey.