Buffy the Vampire Slayer Poetry

The Jossverse has one canonical poet, revealed in the BtVS-5 episode, Fool for Love: "They call him William the Bloody ... because of his bloody awful poetry! Haw haw haw haw!" Spike's poetical tendencies get four mentions over the two series, and we hear two excerpts from his poems, both truly, deeply awful lyric odes à la Keats or Byron. 
From Lies My Parents Told Me:
Yet her smell, it doth linger, 
painting pictures in my mind. 
Her eyes, balls of honey, 
Angels' harps her laugh. 
Oh, lark, grant a sign if crook'd be Cupid's shaft. 
Hark! The lark! Her name it hath spake: 
"Cecily" it discharges from twixt its wee beak.
From Fool for Love and Not Fade Away:
My soul is racked in harsh repose 
Midnight descends in raven colored clothes 
But soft, behold! A sunlight beam 
Cutting a swath of glimmering gleam 
My heart expands, 'tis grown a bulge in't, 
Inspired by your beauty effulgent.
Just before the end of the poetry slam scene in Not Fade Away, Spike shouts out one more title for fans to play with, "The Wanton Folly of Me Mum", which suggests that (a) he's actively composing (since he's unlikely to have touched that particular subject prior to Lies My Parents Told Me) and (b) he's broadening his repertoire. A few nights after the episode aired, Sylvia Volk wrote the definitive "Wanton Folly".Sylvia Volk, The Wanton Folly of Me Mum. (Accessed 25 July 2009)
Fans have added many other styles and subjects to Spike's oeuvre. SonnetsSounding Sea, Bloody Awful. (Accessed 25 July 2009), villanellesQuinara, Maudlin Drivel Spike Scribbled in A5. (Accessed 25 July 2009), free verseSobsister, Rhymes with Luck. (Accessed 25 July 2009), more odesGillo, Verse and Worse. (Accessed 25 July 2009) and even haikuMere Ubu, Spaiku. (Accessed 2 August 2009) have been written in his voice. Members of Tea at the Ford compiled a number of theirs into a chapbookTea at the Ford, The Chapbook of William the Bloody Rhymer. (Accessed 25 July 2009), and Gillo and Anaross have both embedded multiple poems in larger prose works. Anaross, My Life Closed Twice. (Accessed 25 July 2009)
Liam and Will, A Tragedy, by Lynnenne, is a porny slash drama in blank verseLynnenne, Liam and Will, A Tragedy. (Accessed 2 August 2009), while Quinara's Spikeid gives new meaning to the phrase, "Spuffy is epic."Quinara, Spikeid. (Accessed 2 August 2009)
None of the other characters in the Jossverse get as much attention as Spike, but there are surprising and lovely exceptions for RileyTrixiefatcat, Last Summer's Corn. (Accessed 2 August 2009), VerucaCrowgirl13, Veruca. (Accessed 2 August 2009), Angel/BuffyTkp, Prerequisites. (Accessed 2 August 2009), and TaraHth Sotto Voce (accessed 26 April 2012), among others.
Other works, such as macha's cante fable, descant descendingmacha, descant descending. (Accessed 2 August 2009), Sylvia Volk's concrete poemsSylvia Volk, Phoenix. (Accessed 25 July 2009), and Stephen Burt's "Scenes from Next Week's Buffy the Vampire Slayer"Burt, Stephen, Scenes from Next Week's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Accessed 2 August 2009), straddle lit and crit. macha has recorded several of hers as podfic and collaborated with Fallowdoe to set several more to music.Tea at the Ford, Tea at the Ford Recording Room. (update link when site completes relocation)
Stultiloquentia maintains a Jossverse Poetry Masterlist. Please leave her your links!
==References==
Category:Poetry
Category:Buffy the Vampire Slayer Glossary