Eh; as noted elsewhere, sticking to the original's structure isn't that important to Weird Al Yankovic, so why should it be for you? And there doesn't have to be a central character; literary-canonical "epic series of events" poems escape me for the moment, but I know I've read them.

(though it would be neat if it had a palantir to look at; offhand can't think of a plausible way one of them would've rolled down there, tbough)

Then rolled from high above the dark
A glowing orb; he seized it. "Hark!
What's this, so round and gallant, here?
I think it is a palantir,"
The Balrog thought, "at last!"
And so he watched the world outside
And watching, knew what came to pass
In lands where Men and Elves rove wide
Beyond dark Caradhras.

Or something.

I dunno, I like Poe, myself.