As I edit book four of my fantasy series, The Chronicles of Almoriden, I have thought a lot about how poetry influenced my fantasy novels. I write a lot of poetry that is not tied to my fiction, but I have enjoyed having poetry be an important part of my fantasy world.
George R. R. Martin wrote a wonderful memorial about my favorite fantasy author Roger Zelazny. His sentiments can be summarized by the first line of the memorial:
"He was a poet first, last, always."
This simple sentence has changed the way I look at poetry and how it interacts with my fiction. I have adopted it as a mantra as I write fiction, especially as I edit. "I am a poet first, last, always." I do not always achieve this goal, nor do I think that I have the poetic talent of Roger Zelazny, but I have found that by writing with this in mind, my viewpoint characters have license to be poets.
My first exploration into the world of Almoriden was in the form of a poem.
I was taking my advanced poetry course at the same time I was prepping to write The Merchant of Vaetskan. If I had to write a ballade, it might as well be addressed to the prince of the world I was creating.
The poem also described events that the viewpoint character did not witness and solidified the structure of Historical Notes and Interludes of the first three books.
As mentioned before, writing poetic fiction has allowed my characters to be more poetic. This is most notable with the Rhymes of the Mariner. These pieces of verse show up periodically throughout the novels and allow me to explore the story in different ways and viewpoints. I have amassed quite a few of these little poems. Many of them make their way into the novels, some do not. Perhaps someday I will publish them as a complete volume, but only if I can convince the Artist of Oesterfeld to write the forward. Until then, I will continue to write them for my own amusement and sneak them into my novels when I can.
It only seems fitting to share one of these rhymes, which may or may not be included in book four The Painted Ship:
Swords slashed the muzzled night
Fire burned the day to dust.
Worms ate the tired rust.
and broken was their sight.
When death comes by sharp thrust
that breaks through the starlight
with tears and blood contrite
that shatters outer crust
then deserved are bones white
drinking both love and lust
breaking both faith and trust
under golden moonlight.
The conclusion that I come to is that poetry will always be a part of The Chronicles of Almoriden. My characters may not always be poets, but I will always strive to be a poet first, last, and always.
If you have not read The Chronicles of Almoriden, you can get book one, The Prince of Gylion free here.
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