A mock
epic is a
long,
humorous narrative poem that treats a
trivial subject with the
grand,
elevated style of the
epic (such as
Beowulf,
Paradise Lost, and
the Odyssey). Sometimes referred to as the
mock-heroic poem, this
literary form saw brief
popularity in the eighteenth
century. The
conventions of the mock
epic poem require that the
characters and the
action be of
heroic proportions.
One of the best examples of the mock
epic poem is
The Rape of the Lock, by
Alexander Pope, in which the simple
event of an admirer snipping a
lock of a young
woman's
hair is thrown far, far out of
proportion.