Batblog

A Poet Is Me

Poetry. It's a pretty integral part of the Redwall experience, isn't it? Reading as characters break out into a variety of heartfelt ballads, marching chants, silly nonsense songs, and clever riddles all served to give the world and its inhabitants a lot of added texture and personality. One of my struggles when I was planning The Krimson Traitor was with whether or not I would actually continue in that tradition. Now, I have written poetry before, and even received some compliments for my work, but all that was back in my high school English classes. I haven't dabbled in poetry since, as my writing interests simply lie outside that format. But a Redwall story just wouldn't be the same without the songs, and my secondary purpose for doing this fanfic in the first place is to force myself outside of my writing comfort zone a little, so I've decided to get back into it. Here's a taste of something I whipped up last night:

Oh, faithless dark fox,
What promises to break?
Whose blood will you shed?
This perilous choice,
Yours to make;

When from far western lands,
Sails a fated foe stained red,
Shall Mossflower weep or rejoice?
The answer, swordbearer,
Lies down this treacherous path which you tread.

This is meant to be spoken by the Badger Lord of Salamandastron when our protagonist meets him later on in the story. I also have a dibbun's nursery rhyme that I'm working on, and I'm even considering trying my hand at a song written by bats, written by bats.

So, yes, there will be the traditional Redwall songs and poems. Whether they'll be as good as anything Mr. Jacques could have ever composed is not for me to say, but they will be there.