This is probably the geekiest post I’ve ever made. Not because of the poetry but because of why I need the poems. Those of you who just want to talk about poems skip on down to the last paragraph. Those of you with nothing better to do just go ahead and read as normal.
Recently I read a poem called “The Garden of Prosperpine” by a guy named Algernon Charles Swinburne. I was inspired to use this poem as part of my Call of Cthulhu game, the serial killer was going to leave parts of this poem with each of his victims. Unfortunately my gaming group isn’t interested in playing CoC but instead we’re playing Spycraft during the 1960’s. This is a combination of James Bond, Austin Powers, and Max Helm and is a light hearted game miles away from Call of Cthulhu.
The evil organization I’ve created is called the Mad Poets Society. The MPS is made up of nefarious artist who believe that only through pain and angst can worthwhile art be produced. So they attempt to spread misery in the form of war, pestilence, and poverty. Their latest scheme is to start a nuclear war between the United States and the USSR. The resulting nuclear holocaust will serve as the ultimate inspiration. (Yeah, it’s over the top and rather silly but that’s half the fun.) The leader of MPS is a mysterious individual known simply as Poet. His calling card are quotes from various poems he leaves with his victims.
So I just need poems about death, misery, betrayal, hypocrisy, and what the heck…why not some happy ones as well?
Marc