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Finally... => Creative Projects => Topic started by: LittleJP on January 31, 2013, 11:21:13 pm

Title: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: LittleJP on January 31, 2013, 11:21:13 pm
Hello,

I'm a music student at university, which lends me several unique possibilities. One is easy access to skilled musicians and instruments. The other is being young enough and foolish enough to try to found  new style/genre of music.

BEHOLD! DWARFCORE!!!

Anyway, what I'm looking for is various short poems, writings, longer epics, ballads to set and compose. However, I would much prefer them to be about dwarf fortress and whatever stories we have.

I do ask that you give me full permission in regards with the text and the usage. I may use some of these for composition competitions, portfolio work, and the remote chance of commercial release of work.

What I do finish (written/recorded/etc.) would be made available to the authors, and I'll do my best to post some works here.

Let us found a "Dwarf-approved" musical style!
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Heron TSG on January 31, 2013, 11:48:33 pm
A short poem for dwarves?
That would be haiku, of course.
What else could it be?
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: LittleJP on February 01, 2013, 12:31:52 am
What I mean is poems about dwarf fortress, be it the beauty of a butterfly holding the door for a charging elephant, the chaotic roar of a well designed magma trap, and the story of how a mayor, elevated above his plebeian fellows got all high and mighty and wanted adamantine doors and was subsequently overthrown.

When I say short, I'm talking about 2-5 verses. Longer works in the length of the "Ancient Mariner" would be feasible, but the ending work would end up almost 30 minutes in length, if not more.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Cthulhu on February 01, 2013, 12:40:34 am
Let me see if I can't throw something together.  I'll follow Barbarossa's precedent.

A newborn kitten
Bloom of life, starving dorf's meal
No Spring in Winter
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: LittleJP on February 01, 2013, 01:07:52 am
Now, the custom is to credit the lyricist. Would you prefer to give me your real names/initials in PM, or remain anonymous? I could also use pen names.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: RedKing on February 04, 2013, 10:28:05 am
I'm going to try and start some linked verse, using Cthulhu's haiku.

No Spring in Winter
Caravan has passed us by
The gate was still closed
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Owlbread on February 04, 2013, 11:08:18 am
My terribly written Gaelic poem about Dwarves:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's the English translation (very rough):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: MaximumZero on February 04, 2013, 12:26:45 pm
Quote from: RedKing on February 04, 2013, 10:28:05 am
I'm going to try and start some linked verse, using Cthulhu's haiku.

No Spring in Winter
Caravan has passed us by
The gate was still closed
The gate was still closed
To prevent the Doom of us
From curs`ed goblins
(Cursed is two syllables, villain style. Didn't know how to notate that.)
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: RedKing on February 04, 2013, 02:07:58 pm
Quote from: MaximumZero on February 04, 2013, 12:26:45 pm
Quote from: RedKing on February 04, 2013, 10:28:05 am
I'm going to try and start some linked verse, using Cthulhu's haiku.

No Spring in Winter
Caravan has passed us by
The gate was still closed
The gate was still closed
To prevent the Doom of us
From curs`ed goblins
(Cursed is two syllables, villain style. Didn't know how to notate that.)

I think in Shakespearean works, they denote that sort of thing as curs-ed, to show the stress on the second syllable (or that there *is* a second syllable).

From curs-ed goblins
Come many iron ingots
Cleansed in sweet magma
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: MaximumZero on February 05, 2013, 12:25:24 pm
Aha. I see. I initially had it written (typed?) in that manner, but it looked wrong.

Anyway...I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Cleansed in sweet MAGMA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Cthulhu on February 05, 2013, 12:50:11 pm
Poetry marks normally silent vowels with a grave
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: RedKing on February 05, 2013, 03:15:00 pm
Quote from: MaximumZero on February 05, 2013, 12:25:24 pm
Aha. I see. I initially had it written (typed?) in that manner, but it looked wrong.

Anyway...I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Cleansed in sweet MAGMA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
For we have dug too deeply
A balrog is come
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: LittleJP on February 07, 2013, 11:12:51 pm
Quote from: MaximumZero on February 05, 2013, 12:25:24 pm
Aha. I see. I initially had it written (typed?) in that manner, but it looked wrong.

Anyway...I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Cleansed in sweet MAGMA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Some soprano is just going to LOVE this.
Keep em coming! I'm enjoying the practice of setting text.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: MaximumZero on February 07, 2013, 11:30:07 pm
I'm really surprised that RedKing didn't follow that up with:

Come from the land of
ice and snow from the midnight
sun where hot springs flow."
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: RedKing on February 08, 2013, 04:43:26 pm
Quote from: MaximumZero on February 07, 2013, 11:30:07 pm
I'm really surprised that RedKing didn't follow that up with:

Come from the land of
ice and snow from the midnight
sun where hot springs flow."
At first I was going to say it wouldn't fit a haiku form. But you actually did. You magnificant bastard. (said to both MZ and Robert Plant)
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: MonkeyHead on February 08, 2013, 04:57:22 pm
Quote from: RedKing on February 05, 2013, 03:15:00 pm
Quote from: MaximumZero on February 05, 2013, 12:25:24 pm
Aha. I see. I initially had it written (typed?) in that manner, but it looked wrong.

Anyway...I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Cleansed in sweet MAGMA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
For we have dug too deeply
A balrog is come

A balrog is come
Time to smash its foul head in
With my new hammer
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Cthulhu on February 09, 2013, 01:21:09 pm
Come on guys, there's more to a haiku than the syllables!

I'm thinking about writing, or at least beginning to write, a semi-epic poem about some dorf hero.  That's probably more in line with what the OP was looking for.  I tried to do it in Homeric verse but it doesn't work that well in English.  You can either do it in quantitative (long-short-short) but that's almost impossible in English, or you can do it in accentuated (stress-unstress-unstress) but that doesn't preserve the beat.

So I'll just do it in god damned iambic pentameter I guess.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Strife26 on February 09, 2013, 02:08:34 pm
Bow at the foot of English's poetic form! I'll try to piece something together in a more interesting meter, but might end up on iambic as well.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Owlbread on February 09, 2013, 05:25:59 pm
Who says it has to be in English?
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: LittleJP on February 09, 2013, 07:25:27 pm
The problem with non-english is that it becomes more difficult to set properly. I'm not familiar enough with other languages to set the stressed/unstressed syllables and I wouldn't be able to set it very well when I have no idea what each word means.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on February 09, 2013, 11:06:12 pm
Here in the Dwarven Home of Axecrashed,
Nobles and necromancers ran free,
Yak hair and mandates came all the day,
"The fort will fall" as some elfy dwarves say.

But then a true dwarf clad in steel and blood
Took to himself in a workshop
When he emerged he was quite a sight
a dwarf, a legend of might.

He had made the fort's salvation
A finely crafted floodgate of bauxite
It was installed and the necromancer caught
That night, a banquet no money could have bought.

Copper cages as far as the eye can see
Today is the day that our fort could truly be
Nobles and Necromancers all in line
And the magma was right on time.

Glowing red vengeance flooded in freely...

Nobles and Necromancers no more.


Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Cthulhu on February 10, 2013, 12:19:07 am
What's the meter on that?  I'm pretty bad at scansion but it feels like dactylic.  I like it, but you can sort of see what I was complaining about earlier, you kind of have to contort English to make it fit the meter; I bet things would work a lot better in iambic.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Tsuchigumo550 on February 10, 2013, 11:23:46 am
It's... not really in anything. Most of the words aren't spoken any differently, but I basically just hummed a tune to it when I typed.

The italics is supposed to be fast.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Cthulhu on February 10, 2013, 03:06:30 pm
So I've started some tentative work on a Dwarven Epyllion, just establishing the setting right now.  One stanza, and I want to know what people think, and if I'm not fucking up the meter or anything.  Italics denote things I'm not sure I like, please give me feedback on those parts especially.

Look to the North.  The chimneys smoke no more.
Empty and still is the old valley floor.
Nature reclaimeth her kingdom, and dwarven
stone by crawling root is untimely riven.
Lament!  Lament!  Shatteredglazes fell.
To time, to clime, to Stozu, come from hell.
Stozu, goblin foul, the devil, the dog.
Whose band of jackals struck from out the fog.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: LittleJP on May 10, 2013, 10:53:06 am
Quote from: Tsuchigumo550 on February 09, 2013, 11:06:12 pm
Here in the Dwarven Home of Axecrashed,
Nobles and necromancers ran free,
Yak hair and mandates came all the day,
"The fort will fall" as some elfy dwarves say.

But then a true dwarf clad in steel and blood
Took to himself in a workshop
When he emerged he was quite a sight
a dwarf, a legend of might.

He had made the fort's salvation
A finely crafted floodgate of bauxite
It was installed and the necromancer caught
That night, a banquet no money could have bought.

Copper cages as far as the eye can see
Today is the day that our fort could truly be
Nobles and Necromancers all in line
And the magma was right on time.

Glowing red vengeance flooded in freely...

Nobles and Necromancers no more.

I finally started setting this today. Busy semester.

If anyone's interested, I got around to uploading a bunch of non-vocal works.

https://soundcloud.com/littlejp
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: wierd on May 10, 2013, 03:07:26 pm
Ok.. I might try my hand at this.

It will take me a while to perculate something pleasing though.
Title: Re: [WANTED]Poets/Writers
Post by: Xantalos on May 10, 2013, 08:01:12 pm
I think this could count. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=19727.0)
Also this. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=120075.0)