Epic
Epic - meaning Summary
Local Quarrel, Epic Scale
The speaker recounts a violent, petty dispute over a small strip of land in his rural Irish community, set against the backdrop of the Munich Agreement. He questions whether local squabbles matter compared with world events, then recalls Homer and the Iliad. The poem argues that epic significance is not inherent to events but bestowed by storytellers or gods, so local passions can be as meaningful as historical crises.
Read Complete AnalysesI have lived in important places, times When great events were decided, who owned That half a rood of rock, a no-man's land Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims. I heard the Duffys shouting "Damn your soul" And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen Step the plot defying blue cast-steel— "Here is the march along these iron stones" That was the year of the Munich bother. Which Was more important? I inclined To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin Til Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind He said: I made the Iliad from such A local row. Gods make their own importance.
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