Herman Melville 
Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land 

Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land is an American epic poem by Herman Melville, published in two volumes in 1876. Clarel is the longest poem in American literature, stretching to almost 18, 000 lines (longer even than European classics such as the Iliad, Aeneid and Paradise Lost). As well its great length, Clarel is notable for being the major work of Melville’s later years; in the three decades between The Confidence Man (1857) and Billy Budd (begun in 1888), Melville devoted himself solely to writing poetry, with Clarel and the short American Civil War collection, Battle Pieces, being his most significant achievements. (from wikipedia.com)