"Very few people actually know about Uruk, but everyone's heard about Gilgamesh, " said Mr. Wartke, meaning both the king and the epic that contains a flood narrative similar to the Bible's.
Pleas for forgiveness, compromise and comfort surface in "Please" and "Anita, " among others, while the lush epic "With Nothing Much to Show of It" finds Barzelay looking for greater meaning, only to settle calmly for what's at hand.
If meaning were linear with word count, you would be able to generate a thunderous epic with 47 syllables, given that some of the ancient Haiku masters changed cultural perceptions momentously with just 17.