Poetry of Nightmares, Classic Spooky Poems From the Past

By D. Brewer

A marvellously spooky collection of classic poems by the great literary poets of the past, including William Shakespeare, Edgar Alan Poe, John Donne, Robert Herrick, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Emily Dickinson, William Blake, Mary Howitt, and many many more. Indulge in the gruesome tellings of ghosts that haunted palaces and trees and murderers huts. Read of spell casting witches and the evil works of the devil in ancient times. Perfect for creepy Halloween evening readings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716854507

Book preview

Copyright

‘Poetry of Nightmares, Classic Spooky Poems From the Past’

First published in June 2020 by D. Brewer

Distributed by Lulu Press

Copyright © 2020 D. Brewer, Maidenhead, Berkshire, UK

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording. Nor may it be stored in a retrieval system , transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use, other than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the author.

ISBN-13: 9781716854507

First Edition

Poems Within This Book

Double, Double Toil and Trouble - William Shakespeare

The Apparition - John Donne

The Hag - Robert Herrick

Halloween - Robert Burns

Darkness - Lord George Gordon Byron

The Raven - Edgar Allan Poe

Haunted Houses - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti

The Mystic Trumpeter – Walt Whitman

Ghost House - Robert Frost

A Dream Within A Dream - Edgar Allan Poe

Because I Could Not Stop For Death - Emily Dickinson

The Bells - Edgar Allan Poe

Dreamland - Edgar Allan Poe

The Haunted Oak - Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Haunted Palace - Edgar Allan Poe

The Lake - Edgar Allan Poe

Leonainie - James Whitcomb Riley

Proverbs of Hell - William Blake

The Pumpkin - John Greenleaf Whittier

Silence - Edgar Allan Poe

The Vampire - Rudyard Kiplin

The Witch - Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Witch-Wife - Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Spider And The Fly - Mary Howitt

The Ghost Of The Murderer’s Hut - Andrew Barton Paterson

The Only Ghost I Ever Saw - Emily Dickinson

The Little Ghost - Edna St Vincent Millay

Witchcraft By A Picture - John Donne

My Witche - Nicholas Breton

Upon The Sight Of An Old But Very Deformed Woman - Robert Heath

Another To Bring In The Witch - Robert Herrick

Crimina Gravissima - Henry Peacham

To All Sorcerers, Enchanters, Charmers, Necromancers, Conjurers, Magitians, Southsayers, Witches, Fortunetellers; And All The Rest Of The Devils Luglers, Whatsoever And Wheresoever - Samuel Rowlands

Witches, Sorcerers, Conjurers and Enchanters - Richard West

A Lute Song - Thomas Campion

The Deserted Village - Oliver Goldsmith

Double, Double Toil and Trouble - (from Macbeth) - By William Shakespeare

Round about the cauldron go;   

In the poison’d entrails throw.  

Toad, that under cold stone    

Days and nights hast thirty one  

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,   

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot. 

Double, double toil and trouble; 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.  

Fillet of a fenny snake,   

In the cauldron boil and bake;   

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,   

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,  

Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,   

Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,   

For a charm of powerful trouble, 

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.  

Double, double toil and trouble;   

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

The Apparition - By John Donne

When by thy scorn, O murd'ress, I am dead 

And that thou think'st thee free 

From all solicitation from me, 

Then shall my ghost come to thy bed, 

And thee, feign'd vestal, in worse arms shall see; 

Then thy sick taper will begin to wink, 

And he, whose thou art then, being tir'd before, 

Will, if thou stir, or pinch to wake him, think 

Thou call'st for more, 

And in false sleep will from thee shrink; 

And then, poor aspen wretch, neglected thou 

Bath'd in a cold quicksilver sweat wilt lie 

A verier ghost than I. 

What I will say, I will not tell thee now, 

Lest that preserve thee; and since my love is spent, 

I had rather thou shouldst painfully repent, 

Than by my threat'nings rest still innocent.

The Hag - By Robert Herrick

The Hag is astride,

This night for to ride;

The Devill and shee together:

Through thick, and through thin,

Now out, and then in,

Though ne’r so foule be the weather.

A Thorn or a Burr

She takes for a Spurre:

With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,

Through Brakes and through Bryars,

O’re Ditches, and Mires,

She follows the Spirit that guides now.

No Beast, for his food,

Dares now range the wood;

But husht in his laire he lies lurking:

While mischiefs, by these,

On Land and on Seas,

At noone of Night are a working.

The storme will arise,

And trouble the skies;

This night, and more for the wonder,

The ghost from the Tomb

Affrighted shall come,

Cal’d out by the clap of the Thunder.

Halloween - By Robert Burns

The following poem will, by many readers, be well enough understood; but for the sake of those who are unacquainted with the manners and traditions of the country where the scene is cast, notes are added to give some account of the principal charms and spells of that night, so big with prophecy to the peasantry in the west of Scotland. The passion of prying into futurity makes a striking part of the history of human nature in its rude state, in all ages and nations; and it may be some entertainment to a philosophic mind, if any such honour the author with a perusal, to see the remains of it among the more unenlightened in our own. – Robert Burns, 1785.