Need vague predictions, preferably in poem or ballad style
The first part of Yeats "The Second Coming"?
www.poetryfoundation.org
Maybe several stanzas from "January, 1795" by Mary Robinson.
www.poetryfoundation.org
"A Grave Song" by Amy Lowell has some nice turn of phrase.
A Grave Song - Lowell
If it involves a Dragon of flying baddy, maybe "The Black Vulture" by Sterling
47. Black Vulture. George Sterling. Modern American Poetry
It's a bit modern sounding, but I can picture a snarky bard or the like doing the first two stanza's of Fenton's "God, A Poem"
www.poetrybyheart.org.uk
"The Hag" by Rover Herrick is classic and may have something to work from
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats | Poetry Foundation
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
www.poetryfoundation.org
Maybe several stanzas from "January, 1795" by Mary Robinson.
January, 1795 by Mary Robinson | Poetry Foundation
Pavement slipp’ry, people sneezing,
www.poetryfoundation.org
"A Grave Song" by Amy Lowell has some nice turn of phrase.
A Grave Song - Lowell
If it involves a Dragon of flying baddy, maybe "The Black Vulture" by Sterling
47. Black Vulture. George Sterling. Modern American Poetry
It's a bit modern sounding, but I can picture a snarky bard or the like doing the first two stanza's of Fenton's "God, A Poem"
Poetry By Heart
www.poetrybyheart.org.uk
"The Hag" by Rover Herrick is classic and may have something to work from
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Haiku Elvis
Knuckle-dusters, glass jaws and wooden hearts.
Actually I was thinking of the Yeats one but couldn't remember who wrote it or what it was called
just "the centre cannot hold, the blood dimmed tide is loosed" bit. Which is pretty portentious.
I've used bits of the garden of proserpine by Swinburn before but that was for a more gothicky undead scenario and it's a bit of a Victorian gothicky ooh death how moody poem so may not be suitable for what you're looking for.
"Then star nor sun shall waken,
Nor any change of light:
Nor sound of waters shaken,
Nor any sound or sight:
Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,
Nor days nor things diurnal;
Only the sleep eternal
In an eternal night."
just "the centre cannot hold, the blood dimmed tide is loosed" bit. Which is pretty portentious.
I've used bits of the garden of proserpine by Swinburn before but that was for a more gothicky undead scenario and it's a bit of a Victorian gothicky ooh death how moody poem so may not be suitable for what you're looking for.
"Then star nor sun shall waken,
Nor any change of light:
Nor sound of waters shaken,
Nor any sound or sight:
Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,
Nor days nor things diurnal;
Only the sleep eternal
In an eternal night."
Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
I'm pretty good at these. I need you to seed it, though, with a couple of prop elements you may or may not use.
EDIT: also, the most important question: who is writing the prophecy? Is it an old crazed prophet? A young poet? A priestess? This matters a huge amount on the tone, at least for me.
EDIT: also, the most important question: who is writing the prophecy? Is it an old crazed prophet? A young poet? A priestess? This matters a huge amount on the tone, at least for me.
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Piratecat
Sesquipedalian
For example,:
From Book 43, Chapter 19, Stanzas 19-26 the recorded utterances of Joachim the blessed and completely sane, High Prophet of our divine lady, honored be his memory for all time:
"Get away from me with that thing! You can't turn ME into a goatherd, no you mayn't, not with your ever-scratching pen and your sheets of skin! For you won't be the last person to scratch, far from it. They'll hear them first: the scratching from beneath the mountains, the echoes in the avalanche and the vibrations in the boulders as the land begins to grind! They come, and they scream as they are birthed. The home of the girl who marries the wind is the third to be devoured, spiraling beneath claws that rise through the night. They'll flee, you see, flee in every direction but down - and the roads will be choked, and the knights will be choked, and all will waste away. If they're smart they'll seek the goatherd, the first goatherd, for she knows the song that can stop the scratching in the place where heartbeats cease. And their little hooves will go clip clip clop like when I used to be a little goat, and O goodness mee I think perhaps I may wish to lie down, put down your quill and fetch me my O dear"
<The ink in this section is smudged>
----
Man, those are fun to write. The trick is to put in a whole bunch of vague clues that almost make sense right now, but which can be interpreted multiple ways. For bonus points, allude to the heroes in the prophecy, but not in a way that screws you if someone drops out of the campaign.
From Book 43, Chapter 19, Stanzas 19-26 the recorded utterances of Joachim the blessed and completely sane, High Prophet of our divine lady, honored be his memory for all time:
"Get away from me with that thing! You can't turn ME into a goatherd, no you mayn't, not with your ever-scratching pen and your sheets of skin! For you won't be the last person to scratch, far from it. They'll hear them first: the scratching from beneath the mountains, the echoes in the avalanche and the vibrations in the boulders as the land begins to grind! They come, and they scream as they are birthed. The home of the girl who marries the wind is the third to be devoured, spiraling beneath claws that rise through the night. They'll flee, you see, flee in every direction but down - and the roads will be choked, and the knights will be choked, and all will waste away. If they're smart they'll seek the goatherd, the first goatherd, for she knows the song that can stop the scratching in the place where heartbeats cease. And their little hooves will go clip clip clop like when I used to be a little goat, and O goodness mee I think perhaps I may wish to lie down, put down your quill and fetch me my O dear"
<The ink in this section is smudged>
----
Man, those are fun to write. The trick is to put in a whole bunch of vague clues that almost make sense right now, but which can be interpreted multiple ways. For bonus points, allude to the heroes in the prophecy, but not in a way that screws you if someone drops out of the campaign.
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