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harpy
2009-12-15, 02:20 PM
I've read in posts that many people use poetry in their RPGs. I've never encountered that, but I thought I'd like to give it a try as extra trimming for age old tales, clues and hints for quests, etc.

I'd like to find poetry that is either short, or there are good chunks that can be lifted from a longer poem, that I could use in the game.

In general I'm looking for things that are just 4 to 10 lines, and prefer poems that rhyme. This isn't about doing poetry slams, but just adding an extra bit of punch to add flavor.

I could and probably will take a stab at writing my own awful poetry, but if there are gifted poets that I could use material from then all the better.

In many ways I'm just looking for stuff like what you can find in The Hobbit, such as:

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

On silver necklaces they strung
The light of stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, from twisted wire
The melody of harps they wrung.

But I'd like to find sources of material that aren't widely read so that people don't get thrown out of the story when they realize its Tolkien.

Britter
2009-12-15, 02:39 PM
Robert Howard has some poetry well suited to heroic style games, in my opinion. As an example:

What do I know of cultured ways? The gilt, the craft, and the lie?
I who was born in a naked land, and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist's guile, they fail when broadswords sing,
Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a King.

--R. E. Howard

If you check some of the anthologies of his work you will surely find a few more good examples.

Grifthin
2009-12-15, 02:46 PM
Also - consider using music in your sessions if you don't already. Stuff like "Immediate music - trailerhead" is awesomly sweeping and epic. Good for building atmosphere.

Telonius
2009-12-15, 03:13 PM
Up the airy mountains
Down the rushy Glen,
We dare not go a-hunting
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And a white owl's feather.
- "The Fairies" by William Allingham.

My papa says that I was blest
For if that music found me,
I'd be witch-cast like all the rest.
This town grows old around me.
I cannot say I did not hear
That sound so haunting hollow --
I heard, I heard, I heard it clear...
I was afraid to follow
- "The One Who Stayed," by Shel Silverstein

Full many a wonder is told us in stories old,
of heroes worthy of praise, of hardships dire,
of joy and feasting, of weeping and of wailing;
of the fighting of bold warriors, now ye may hear wonders told.

Uns ist in alten męren wunders vil geseit
von helden lobebęren, von grōzer arebeit,
von freuden, hōchgezīten, von weinen und von klagen,
von küener recken strīten muget ir nu wunder hœren sagen

- First four verses of the Nibelungenlied