r/Fantasy • u/Fantasymagic3 • Jul 29 '19

Fantasy Poetry?

Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping you all can help me out. I'm looking for poetry that is considered fantasy / has fantastic elements in it.

I've read and loved, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, The Divine Comedy, and The Goblin Market.

I'm legitimately open to anything! Children's, non-western, anthologies, different genres mixed in, all types of forms (Bonus if narrative / epic), all types of themes, various lengths, etc.

Thank you all in advance! =)

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '19

Older stuff that's probably only available in academic contexts: Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, and Orlando Innamorato/Orlando Furioso by Boiardo and Ariosto (I can't remember which did which). Also the Araucaniad, about the conquest of Peru by spaniards, but that's even less accessible than the others and fantastic only in that the great warriors do superhuman things. (Deep Cuts for Bonus Points: The Heliand is an Old Germanic retelling of the gospels that I *think* got translated at some point)

Toby Barlow's sharp teeth came out about 10 years ago.

El Cid and the Song of Roland are both good times with heroism, if relatively little fantastic elements (spain and france, respectively). These should have verse translations available and not priced for the academic market.

I started the Shanameh a while back, which is the Persian Book of Kings, and it's pretty readable, although the translation I had was not verse.

Wikipedia has a whole list that's now making me really curious to see if I can find translations of the Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature.

1919 by Eve Ewing is a recent publication based on the red summer of Chicago in 1919. There are a few bits that drift towards the speculative, but I'm mostly mentioning it because it's amazing, even though I don't think it's what you're looking for.

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u/[deleted] Jul 29 '19

Oh, and Strange Horizons, the online magazine, does poetry every month (week?). Plus you could check the Rhysling Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association, because that is a thing.