Written by ylside on 11.05.2007 at 13:25

I think Amorphis' "Tales from The Thousand Lakes" album was inspired by the Finnish poem book, Kalevala (or whatever it is named). Maybe you'll find it of interest ?

Yes Kalavala

There was soem mroe doom, black bands who was inspirated from poems specely finish, hmmm since MA are down I can give a names but there was some 20 bands, and some early bands use 19th century painter works gow album covers IMO Amorphis too

The Kalevala is an epic poem which the Finn Elias Lönnrot compiled from Finnish and Karelian folklore in the 19th century. It is held to be the national epic of Finland and is traditionally thought of as one of the most significant works of Finnish language literature. Also Karelians in the Republic of Karelia and other Balto-Finnic speakers value Kalevala. The Kalevala is credited with some of the inspiration for the national awakening that ultimately led to Finland's independence from Russia in 1917.

The name can be interpreted as the "lands of Kaleva" (by the Finnish suffix -la/lä for place). The epic consists of 22,795 verses, divided into fifty cantos or "chapters" (Finnish runo).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala

Iron Maiden's "Revelations" has a British psalm at the beginning. And psalms after all...are poems.

Fungoid Stream's album Celaenus Fragments is all based off HP Lovecraft poems and such, but unfortunately the lyrics are not available, I don't think.

Insomnium's In the groves of death is based on Eino Leino's poem Tumma. Beautiful poem, awesome song.

Ensiferum's 'Old Man' and 'Little Dreamer' are inspired by the Kalevala (similarly to Amorphis)

Iced Earth's 'Dante's Inferno' is inspired by...well, you work it out

Metallica's 'To Live Is To Die' features a short poem by Cliff Burton, if you want to count that.

Written by RavenLord on 01.06.2007 at 23:27

Ensiferum's 'Old Man' and 'Little Dreamer' are inspired by the Kalevala (similarly to Amorphis)

Iced Earth's 'Dante's Inferno' is inspired by...well, you work it out

Metallica's 'To Live Is To Die' features a short poem by Cliff Burton, if you want to count that.

About Dante his work i dunno coerct name in english, but ist one of my fav lyteralic works only one who I read 3 times when go in school other what is hood it was bla bla soemthing yes something no, but it I read 3 times(one more it calls Naves Ena(In the shadows of dearh) I read 2ce and saw movie(sad nowel about ppl who stuck in ice and go to open see, almousta ll was saved, 2 no ) sad but true

My Dying Bride's song "Black God" has its lyrics from a poem by a Jacobite poet called William Hamilton. It's called "Ah, the Shepherd's Mournful Fate":

Ah the shepherd's mournful fate,
When doom'd to live, and doom'd to languish;
To bear the scornful fair one's hate,
Nor dare disclose his anguish.
Yet eager looks, and dying sighs,
My secret soul discover;
While rapture trembling thro' mine eyes,
Reveals how much I love her.
The tender glance, the redd'ning cheek,
O'erspread with rising blushes,
A thousand various ways they speak,
A thousand various wishes.
For oh! that form so heavenly fair,
Those languid eyes so sweetly smiling,
That artless blush, and modest air,
So fatally beguiling.
Thy every look and every grace,
So charm where'er I view thee;
Till death o'ertake me in the chase,
Still will my hopes pursue thee;
Then when my tedious hours are past,
Be this last blessing given,
Low at thy feet to breathe my last,
And die in sight of heaven.
---

Also, Draconian's song "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" has its lyrics from a poem of the same by William Wordsworth.

Oh! and one more thing:
Forest of Shadows' song "Wish" has a couple of lines of lyrics taken directly off Milton's "Paradise Lost"
"Where peace and rest can never dwell, hope never comes" is a line that appears in the first book of the poem, describing Hell.

That's what I can remember for now.

Written by Sleep In Sorrow on 13.11.2007 at 20:59

My Dying Bride's song "Black God" has its lyrics from a poem by a Jacobite poet called William Hamilton. It's called "Ah, the Shepherd's Mournful Fate":

Ah the shepherd's mournful fate,
When doom'd to live, and doom'd to languish;
To bear the scornful fair one's hate,
Nor dare disclose his anguish.
Yet eager looks, and dying sighs,
My secret soul discover;
While rapture trembling thro' mine eyes,
Reveals how much I love her.
The tender glance, the redd'ning cheek,
O'erspread with rising blushes,
A thousand various ways they speak,
A thousand various wishes.
For oh! that form so heavenly fair,
Those languid eyes so sweetly smiling,
That artless blush, and modest air,
So fatally beguiling.
Thy every look and every grace,
So charm where'er I view thee;
Till death o'ertake me in the chase,
Still will my hopes pursue thee;
Then when my tedious hours are past,
Be this last blessing given,
Low at thy feet to breathe my last,
And die in sight of heaven.
---

That is one of my most favourites from My Dying Bride, didn't know its lyrics is actually from a poem. I think i must check other works of this poet , 'Black God''s lyrics is totally haunted.. you know...

@duyhung: yeah, I didn't know that either. I loved that song too, I think the music and the singing and lyrics combine all too well and have together quite a striking effect, but I didn't know its origin. To be honest, I used wikipedia, then I googled for the poem's and the poet's name and found it out. Interesting, huh? Aaron is quite a literary man. I also found that a few lines from "For My Fallen Angel" (the part: "Love's golden arrow/ At her should have fled / And not Death's ebon dart / To strike her dead") are from a Shakespeare's poem, called "Venus and Adonis".
I bet that if we search a little more, we can find more stuff.

Written by Sleep In Sorrow on 15.11.2007 at 15:23

@duyhung: yeah, I didn't know that either. I loved that song too, I think the music and the singing and lyrics combine all too well and have together quite a striking effect, but I didn't know its origin. To be honest, I used wikipedia, then I googled for the poem's and the poet's name and found it out. Interesting, huh? Aaron is quite a literary man. I also found that a few lines from "For My Fallen Angel" (the part: "Love's golden arrow/ At her should have fled / And not Death's ebon dart / To strike her dead") are from a Shakespeare's poem, called "Venus and Adonis".
I bet that if we search a little more, we can find more stuff.

Have you noticed that the line 'In the meadows of heaven, we run' from 'Sear Me MCMXCIII' also appeared in 'For My Fallen Angel' and 'Sear Me III' ? (they only changed it a bit in each) To me it sounds really familiar but i just can't remember from where i have seen it , i think that line is also from a poem as the band used it a lot. do you have any idea?

Okay so I don't think this song is based on a poem as such, but I think it might be based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Pit and the Pendulum"
I've been listening to Nightwish's new album, particularly the first song "The Poet and the Pendulum" (the song is fucking epic, listen to it) and I was wondering what it was about.. it goes on for about 14 mins and its almost like film music, it changes all the time.
I looked up "The Poet and the Pendulum" in google, and it seems that that name refers to Galileo's work and how physics is not as empirical as it should be, and is rather dettached from the data. - So yeah I didn't think that had much to do with Nightwish's song.
But I wikipedia'd "The Pit and the Pendulum" and I think that the description of the short story matches the lyrics from the song...

"The narrator of the story is deemed guilty for an unnamed crime and put into a completely dark room. He passes out while trying to determine the size of the room. When he wakes up, he realizes there is a large, seemingly endless pit in the middle of the room. He loses consciousness again and awakens strapped on his back, unable to move more than his head."

Matched with....

"For years I've been strapped unto this altar.
Now I only have three minutes and counting.
I just wish the tide would catch me first and give me
a death I always longed for."

Yeah, thats just my thoughts.
Tell me what you think

Insomnium - Drawn To Black. The chorus is taken from Francis William Bourdillon's poem The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.

the rime of the ancient mariner by IM is the only song i know that is by a poem, but from the looks of it, there seems to eb quite a number...

Dantes Inferno - Iced Earth (The book is itself written in Iambic Quintameter with an interesting rythem of poetry even if it is almost 200 pages long.)
"Abandon all hope, who each are here,
For this is where all dreams, are left behind"

Many songs (from Amorphis etc) are inspired by Kalevala.

Grave Digger´s song "The Raven" is inspired by Poe´s poem The Raven.

A Poem By Yeats lol by Agalloch

And the whole great Ulver's album The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

The lyrics on The Ghost Album from Wyrd is based on poems from the Finno-Swedish poet Edith Södergran. Also many of Drudkh's lyrics is taken from various Ukranian poets like Ivan Franko and Bogdan Rubchaka (Microcosmos), Oleg Olzhych (Estrangement), Lina Kostenko, Oleksandr Oles, Taras Shevchenko (his poems also used on The Swan Road album), Yuriy Klen (Blood in Our Wells)

The 14 minute epic "And Then There Was Silence" by Blind Guardian is inspired by both Homer's "Illiad" and Virgil's "Aeneid", it's about Cassandra's visions of the upcoming Trojan War.

Written by Bad English on 02.06.2007 at 00:19


About Dante his work i dunno coerct name in english, but ist one of my fav lyteralic works only one who I read 3 times when go in school other what is hood it was bla bla soemthing yes something no, but it I read 3 times(one more it calls Naves Ena(In the shadows of dearh) I read 2ce and saw movie(sad nowel about ppl who stuck in ice and go to open see, almousta ll was saved, 2 no ) sad but true

the whole work is called "The Divine Comedy", Inferno is the first of three parts


there's also Swallow the Sun's Labyrinth of London which is inspired by William Blake's Poem and it also has parts of it narrated within the song

Arcturus and Green Carnation both have songs titled "Alone" based on Poe's poem of the same name. Of course Arcturus's is better

Not sure if it's inspired by it or not, but The Ruins Of Beverast's "Blood Vaults (I - Thy Virginal Malodour)" from Rain Upon The Impure has a part of a poem taken from Poe's The Fall Of The House Of Usher:
"And travelers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see,
Vast forms that move fantastically,
To a discordant melody.

Insomnium - Drawn To Black

The refrain in this song is actually taken directly from Francis William Bourdillon's poem "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes"

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying of the sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

That is the poem, and also the lyrics in the song