Australia has ‘The Great South Road’, South Africa has ‘Shaka Zulu’, Argentina has the gaucho epic ‘Martin Fierro’, and Chile has ‘La Araucana’ as its national poem. Now New Zealand has Crete 1941, a 2475-line epic poem about the New Zealand-led defence of Crete during the Battle of Crete between 20 May and 1 June 1941. Crete 1941 is the only epic long poem in English since Derek Walcott’s ‘Omeros’, with the entry of the 28th (Maori) Battalion as an active combat force providing the culmination of the poem.