The Jack-O’-Lantern By Madison Julius Cawein Last night it was Hallowe’en. Darkest night I’ve ever seen. And the boy next door, I thought, Would be glad to know of this Jack-o’-lantern father brought Home from Indianapolis. And he was glad. Borrowed it. Put a candle in and lit; Hid among the weeds out there […]
Halloween Poems
The Vampire by James Clerk Maxwell 1845
The Vampire by James Clerk Maxwell 1845 Translated into modern English by R Edwards There is a knight riding through the woods, A brave and noble knight is he. And surely he is on an urgent quest, He rides so hastily. He passed the oak and the birch trees, And many other trees passed he, […]
‘Twas Halloween Night
‘Twas Halloween Night Peter Gregg Slater ‘Twas Halloween night, when all thro’ the house Every creature was stirring, even grandad an old souse. The candy bags were hung by the door with care, In hopes that trick-or-treaters would soon be there. The kids were all snug in their costume disguise, While visions of Skittles danc’d […]
The Haunted Isle By Richard H. Fay
I lie beyond the narrow sandy strand,
A jagged mote upon the horizon,
A rugged speck upon the ocean.
Sailors skirt past my flanks in morbid dread.
My dark hollows house the unshriven dead.
The Vampire by Charles Baudelaire
You who, like the stab of a knife,
Entered my plaintive heart;
You who, strong as a herd
Of demons, came, ardent and adorned,
Seekers by Christopher Woods
In the bus station
I was near enough
To be master of ceremonies,
Seeing them on their way.
THE WITCHES (for older children)
THE WITCHES (for older children)
In the dark forest under the haze
absent the moon’s silvery rays,
when the night is black and still
the witches hold a blackbird’s quill.
The Vampire and the Ball by Rebecca L. Snowe
Rebecca L. Snowe is a high-fantasy writer who hates cliché’s, loves the dark and gritty, and is working on becoming a tea addict.
The Grand Illusion by Maggie Pena
The Grand Illusion by Maggie Pena I’m sitting alone in the corner of a room- darkness all around, but light above- from somewhere it comes, that little bit, from somewhere unseen, the light emits. It must, and so I’m sitting alone in the corner of a dark room with the edges of the white walls […]
On Cooking Krakens by Julie Irigaray
Julie Irigaray’s work has appeared in various international publications such as Southword, Banshee (Ireland), Shearsman, Mslexia, Tears in the Fence, Envoi (UK) and The Ofi Press (Mexico), among others.
Hallowe’en by Joel Benton (1896)
Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite
All are on their rounds to-night,
In the wan moon’s silver ray
Hallowe’en by A. F. Murray
A gypsy flame is on the hearth,
Sign of this carnival of mirth.
The Haunted Oak by Paul Laurence Dunbar
THE HAUNTED OAK by Paul Laurence Dunbar Pray why are you so bare, so bare, Oh, bough of the old oak-tree; And why, when I go through the shade you throw, Runs a shudder over me? My leaves were green as the best, I trow, And sap ran free in my veins, But I saw […]
THE VAMPIRE by Rudyard Kipling
THE VAMPIRE by Rudyard Kipling (The verses?as suggested by the painting by Philip Burne Jones, first exhibited at the new gallery in London in 1897.) . A fool there was and he made his prayer (Even as you and I!) To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair (We called her the […]
Sleepy Hollow by William Ellery Channing
SLEEPY HOLLOW No abbey’s gloom, nor dark cathedral-stoops, No winding torches paint the midnight air; Here the green pines delight, the aspen droops Along the modest pathways, and those fair Pale asters of the season spread their plumes Around this field, fit garden for our tombs. And shalt thou pause to hear some funeral bell […]