Poetry Fanfic Meme

[daibhidc]

Not really memed from anyone this time; I was just bored and remembered its existence.

The rules are:

1: Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order.

2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it’s an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list ’em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it’s always been about creativity.)

3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting - make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don’t have to include it in the half-drabble - it’s just inspiration.

[3.5: If you don't think this is enough to make your brain explode, follow john_amend_all's example and make the demidrabbles themselves poems. That ought to do it.]

4: Bravo! Have a cookie.

The fandoms were:

1. Blackadder
2. Diogenes Club
3. Discworld
4. Dragons: Riders of Berk
5. Murdoch Mysteries

The results: (Yes, a couple of them are ± a word, because it's really hard.)

Blackadder: she drank the wine in bed and ("Sleep", Charles Bukowski)

Burgundy left his foe for dead,
Prince Edmund lies in his bed.
Through palace rooms a servant sped,
To attend Prince Edmund’s bed.
“Don’t drink the wine!” young Baldrick said,
As he approached Prince Edmund’s bed.
Alas, too late, his fate was read,
And that is why Prince Edmund’s dead.


Diogenes Club: So let us gather—every Day— ("To earn it by disdaining", Emily Dickinson)

The most unsocial men must meet,
In rooms most dim and smoky,
In case of Vampire or Dark Lord,
Or Baal, Cthulhu or Loki.
If mad wizards should risk the world.
Or threats from some weird Other,
It’s all been thought of in the plans,
Of Sherlock Holmes’s brother.


Discworld: The position of the early Christan Church ("Sunt Leones", Stevie Smith)

The position of the early Omnian church,
Was that thunderbolts would strike you if you left them in the lurch.
The position of Exquisitor Vorbis,
Was that thunderbolts would strike pretty much everyone on the Discly orbis.[1]
But the position of Cenobiarch Brutha,
Was that we should help one anutha.


Dragons: Riders of Berk: whom could I talk to? ("Since Nine O'Clock", C.P. Cavafy)

Hiccup Horrendous, son of strong Stoick
Tamer of Toothless, daring driver of dragons
Finds that his friendships are lessened by leadership
Dares not display doubt, he cannot confide in
His pals of the past, even friend Fishlegs
Protecting his people, he flies ever further
Talking to Toothless, Night Fury familiar


Murdoch Mysteries: Yet more to me than balances in banks ("Stamp Collector", Robert Service)

When a policeman is working on inventions,
Anticipating 2016 fads,
He may find his degree of recompension,[2]
Doesn't quite compare to being bad.

But his sense of justice will ensure compliance,
His paycheque isn’t why the job’s begun,
When a murderer’s been discovered by science,
A detective’s lot’s a satisfying one.

[1] I've checked, "orbis" can mean a circle as well as a globe
[2] I know this isn't actually a word.

Comments

[pedanther]

And each one a pastiche of a particular style, too, I notice. Impressive.

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think that was also something John did (although I was also inspired by your own "Gobble-Uns" pastiche).

Full disclosure, I kind of lucked out with the Discworld one. I was having real trouble getting it to scan, and then I suddenly thought "Actually, this is turning a bit Ogden Nash. I can work with that."