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Two Ghosts Converse
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
'For beauty,' I replied.
'And I for truth, -- the two are one;
We brethren are,' he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
~ Emily Dickenson
Witch!
Ashes of me,
Whirl in the fires I may not name.
Lick, lovely flame!
Will the fagot not burn?
Throw on the tired broom
Stabled till in my room.
I have ridden wide and well.
Shall I say with whom?
(Stop the town bell!)
Listen now,
Listen now if you dare:
I have lain with hope
Under the dreadful bough,
I have suckled Judas' rope
As it swung in the air--
Go find the silver pieces in the moon.
I hid them there.
~ Leonora Speyer
The Warning
As sudden thunder
Pierces night;
As magic wonder,
Wild affright,
Rives asunder
Man's delight:
Our ghost, our corpse and we
Rise to be.
As flies the lizard
Serpent fell;
As goblin vizard
At the spell
Of pale wizard
Sinks to hell:
Our life, our laugh our lay
Pass away.
As wake the morning
Trumpets bright;
As snowdrop, scorning
Winter's mihgt,
Rises warning
Like a sprite:
We buried, dead and slain
Rise again.
~ Thomas Lovell Beddoes
The Incubus
As if, with beasts' eyes, angels led
The way, I slip back to your bed,
Quiet as a hooded light,
Hushed by the shadows of the night.
And then, my dark one, you shall soon
Embrace the cold beams of the moon,
Around a fresh grave, the chilling hiss
Of serpent coiled shall be my kiss.
When morning shows its livid face
Your bed shall feel my empty place,
As cold as death, till fall of night.
Others take tenderness to wife:
Dread gives away your youth and life
To me, to be the bride of fright.
~ Charles Baudelaire
Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived
whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be
loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was
more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And
this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful
Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this
kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason
(as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing
my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far
wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul
from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful
Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide,
I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her
tomb by the sounding sea.
~ Edgar Allan Poe
"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."
--From Shakespeare's Macbeth (IV, i, 14-15)
Der Erlkönig
WHO rides there so late through the night dark and drear?
The father it is, with his
infant so dear;
He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm,
He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.-
"My son, wherefore seek'st thou thy face thus to hide?"
"Look, father, the Erl-King is
close by our side!
Dost see not the Erl-King, with crown and with train?"
"My son, 'tis the mist rising over the plain."-
"Oh, come, thou dear infant! oh come thou with me!
Full many a
game I will play there with thee;
On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,
My mother shall grace thee with
garments of gold."-
" My father, my father, and dost thou
not hear
The words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?"
"Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;
'Tis
the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves."-
"
Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there?
My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care
My daughters by night
their glad festival keep,
They'll dance thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep."
"My father, my father, and dost thou not
see,
How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me?"
"My darling, my darling, I see it aright,
'Tis the
aged grey willows deceiving thy sight."-
" I love thee,
I'm charm'd by thy beauty, dear boy!
and if thou'rt unwilling, then force I'll employ."
My father, my father, he seizes
me fast,
Pull sorly the Erl-King has hurt me last." -
The
father now gallops, with terror half wild,
He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;
He reaches his courtyard
with toil and with dread,--
The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.-
~ Goethe
Click here for Tim Burton's original "Nightmare Before Christmas" poem:
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