[Slow Ben]

Gothos, on 23 March 2011 - 07:06 AM, said:

You should include more options in your poll - me, for example, the first time through I only read the non-poetry openers. I go through the poems on a second reading. It's just that, coupled with my general dislike for the poetic form, when I see a 1,5-page long cipher I'd spend as much time deciphering as I would spend reading the next chapter, well, the choice is obvious.

Abyss, on 23 March 2011 - 04:07 PM, said:

On the re-read absolutely. On the first run, despite my best intentions, i tend to read info-bits but only skim poems. That said i do check who the author was, because while Fisher or Bule or whoever tends to be verse barely tanegtial to the next chapter, Toc, Felisin or other 'in play' characters sneak in every so often.


- Abyss, remembers 'Warleader Temul' from MoI.

These.

I always have the best of intentions reading a book for the first time. But after getting into it, especially Malazan, I just skim or skip it completely.

But i always make sure to read them on the re-reads. I'm not a big fan of poetry, but there is some interesting tidbits in there.

[MillionSpots]

I read every starting passage that's in paragraph form, and every Kellanved quote, 'cause they're so short.
I'm picky about the poems I read. The shorter ones I read, the longer ones... depends. I always read Toc's poems and excerpts from Fisher's Anomandaris. But the poems got longer as the series progressed, and sometimes it breaks the rhythm, you know?

I'm not really a fan of poetry, so there's a bias going in. But I do read all of them when I re-read the books.

[Khellendros]

While I'll be the first to admit that SE's poetry leaves a lot to be desired, I can't help but read all of them. I did notice that as the series progressed, he basically stopped doing any sort of prose writing at beginning of chapters and switched wholly to poetry...which I think was a bad move, the switching between them was another nice touch.

The poems (along with the books themselves) have also got longer and full-winded over the course of the books. Having said that, my absolute favourite is in Reaper's Gale:

Crawl down sun this is not your time
Black waves slide under the sheathed moon
Upon the shore a silent storm a will untamed
Heaves up from the red-skirled foam
Scud to your iron nests you iron clouds
To leave the sea its dancing refuse of stars
On this host of salty midnight tides
Gather drawn and swell tight your tempest
Lift like scaled heads from the blind depths
All your effulgent might in restless roving eyes
Reel back you tottering forests this night
The black waves crash on the black shore
To steal the flesh from your bony roots
Death comes, shouldering aside in cold legion
In a marching wind this dread this blood
This reaper's gale.



I also like that one which is part of a 'tales to terrify small children' or something like that, but I've entirely forgotten which book it's in.

[Abberon]

My favorite is still one of the, if not the first, in Gardens of the Moon.

Two cities remained to contest
the Malazan onslaught.
One stalwart, proud banners
beneath Dark’s powerful wing.
The other divided –
– without an army,
bereft of allies –
The strong city fell first.

It's short, sweet, ironic and powerful.

This post has been edited by Abberon: 17 October 2011 - 03:11 PM

[Ozymandiac]

I used to read all of the openings, including the poems. But somewhere, something went wrong:

1. More poems, less prose

2. The poems got longer

So, yeah... Somewhere along the line I stopped reading them at all.

[Abberon]

Yeah I think a lot of us did.

This post has been edited by Abberon: 17 October 2011 - 04:33 PM

[Blind Sapper]

I always make sure to read the poems and excerpts before each chapter.
However, that doesn't mean I actually read them closely and try to understand them. Usually, I'm in so much of a rush to get on with the story that I just skim over the stuff it says. I do think that some of them are very interesting, though, and I love the ones by Fisher Kel Tath. Or Fisher. Is there a difference?

[Ozymandiac]

No difference.

And perhaps I will pay more attention to the openings in my eventual reread. The first time I just wanted to read the story

[Blueiron]

I like the poems when I have the energy to decypher them. Which does take ALOT of effort sometimes. Depends on how I'm feeling.

[iksaxophone]

Hahahaa...Oh boy, I'm so out of place here...

I read every word of the book. Poems and stories included. I even photocopy some and put them on my wall...I must be completely insane....

[Sapper JHall]

I am almost done with my first read of this series and yes I have read every poem and/or historical piece at the beginning of each chapter. Like most people I really enjoyed the earlier books where the text seemed to have more hints and foreshadowing in the story. However, I still read them because it amazes me how much work and effort Steven put into everything about these books.

[RSM616]

"There is no struggle too vast, no odds too overwhelming, for even should we fail — should we fall — we will know that we have lived "i know this is a quote not a poem but it did appear on the front of a chapter and it has to be one of the most awe inspiring quotes ive ever read

[Lady Bliss]

i didn't at first, and then i realized that there were sometimes CLUES there... now I am very careful to read them, especially while I am doing the reread.

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Lady Bliss, on 09 February 2012 - 09:52 PM, said:

i didn't at first, and then i realized that there were sometimes CLUES there... now I am very careful to read them, especially while I am doing the reread.

I suspected this to be the case but still have a hard time reading the poetry, particularly anything longwinded by Fisher, meaning almost everything by Fisher.

Actually, my favorite bit of poetry (if poetry it is) is in the body of the DoD prologue by Badalle of the Ribby Snake:


All day Rutt holds Held
And keeps her
Wrapped
In his shadow.
It's hard
Not to love Rutt
But Held doesn't
And no one loves Held
But Rutt.

[cliftonprince]

I find the poetry to be very poor poetry. (Sorry. I know, it's just one opinion. I won't get angry if you disagree.) It's more enjoyable to me to ignore the poetic snippets and just pretend they aren't there. I suspect the author would not be delighted at this revelation, but it's my dime ya know?

It's almost as though Erikson wishes to represent stuff that has been badly translated. There's no sense of the rhythm of language, no sounding out the lines as though they could stand in place of music, no great sense of the sweep and scope of historical reconnection with lost arts and deep old truths. It's like, he just felt like he had to scatter words out there, so he took the phone book and a list of nouns, jumbled some of them down, connected it all with verbs, then cut up the pieces into irregular line lengths so that the right hand margin would be ragged rather than justified. I keep telling myself I'm going to go back and read through them, maybe after I've read a chapter to see if they relate, or maybe just do an entire book's worth to catch up. But they're so bad, so often, that I get turned off.

I'm sure they have some redeeming qualities. The content of each little poem sometimes is related to the content of the chapter, to the ongoing sweep of the plot-lines, of course. But it's not worth it to me, it ruins the rest of the book.

This post has been edited by cliftonprince: 26 February 2018 - 08:18 PM

[MattK3]

What an absurd question, of course I do, I do not randomly decide what must or must/may not be read, I cannot imagine such shallowness and arrogance (at least this particular sort).

However I think Steven Erikson seems to be under a misapprehension about poetry. I always find it particularly difficult to read, and not for the usual reasons one might suppose, but his own individual ones. And that is because he seems to think poetry consists primarily of removing any clear reference of personal pronouns. One never really knows if a "he" or "I" or "you" refers to one thing or another. And interpretation consists basically of trying to figure that out. And that makes it rather annoying and not wholly satisfying.

This post has been edited by MattK3: 13 February 2019 - 01:48 PM