ghosties & ghoulies & lang-legged beasties
October 31, 2014 5:51 PM   Subscribe

For others stuck at home tonight, as I am, answering the doorbell for little spooks, some between-rings amusement. From poetry.about.com, a very fine link farm to some spooky halloween poems. If you don't know Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market," go there first. More inside.

Another smash is Robert Frost's "Ghost House," which goes very well with yesterday's Blair Witch Project post.

I dwell in a lonely house I know
That vanished many a summer ago,
And left no trace but the cellar walls,
And a cellar in which the daylight falls,
And the purple-stemmed wild raspberries grow.


And as spooky as you could possibly want, Conrad Aiken's "The Vampire"

She rose among us where we lay.
She wept, we put our work away.
She chilled our laughter, stilled our play;
And spread a silence there.
And darkness shot across the sky,
And once, and twice, we heard her cry;
And saw her lift white hands on high
And toss her troubled hair.


"To the Dead in the Graveyard Underneath My Window" by Adelaide Crapsey (1915) is not one I've ever seen before, and it's verse but not in verses and so doesn't lend itself to bite-size quotation. But it gets six stars out of five, if that's possible. Just sayin'.


Not on the about.com page, and one I miss very much, "The Fairies" by William Allingham

Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We dare n't go a-hunting,
For fear of little men



And (returning to the about.com page) the link to Tam Lin (Child ballad #39) leads off to youtube because of all the modern versions with hot music.

The Old Maid In The Garrett + Tam Lin By a version of Steeleye Span with Maddy Prior and Terry Wood.

Tam Lin by Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer

Tam Lin by Dave Hum, finest.banjo.picker.evar (What Fuller Says Is So. Fpp on dave coming up soon.)


Not Tam Lin. Long Lankin by Steeleye Span

Said the lord unto his lady, as he rode over the moss
"Beware of Long Lankin, that lives amongst the gorse;
Beware the moss, beware the moor, beware of Long Lankin
Make sure the doors are bolted well
Lest Lankin should creep in."

Said the lord unto his lady as he rode away,
"Beware of Long Lankin, that lives amongst the hay;
Beware the moss, beware the moor, beware of Long Lankin
Make sure the doors are bolted well
Lest Lankin should creep in."

"Where's the master of the house?" says Long Lankin.
"He's 'way to London," says the nurse to him.
"Where's the lady of the house?" says Long Lankin.
"She's up in her chamber," says the nurse to him.
"Where's the baby of the house?" says Long Lankin.
"He's asleep in the cradle," says the nurse to him.

"We will pinch him, we will prick him,
we will stab him with a pin,
And the nurse shall hold the basin
for the blood all to run in."
So they pinched him and they pricked him,
then they stabbed him with a pin,
And the false nurse held the basin
for the blood all to run in.

"Lady, come down the stairs," says Long Lankin.
"How can I see in the dark?" she says unto him.
"You have silver mantles," says Long Lankin.
"Lady, come down the stairs by the light of them."
Down the stairs the lady came, thinking no harm
Lankin he stood ready to catch her in his arms.

There was blood all in the kitchen
There was blood all in the hall
There was blood all in the parlour
Where my lady she did fall
Now Long Lankin shall be hanged
from the gallows oh so high,
And the false nurse shall be burned
in the fire close by.

Said the lord unto his lady as he rode over the moss
"Beware of Long Lankin that lives amongst the gorse;
Beware the moss, beware the moor, beware of Long Lankin
Make sure the doors are bolted well
Lest Lankin should creep in.



Sleep tight, y'all

fae ghosties & ghoulies & lang-legged beasties
& things that go bump in the nicht...
guid lord, deliver us.
posted by jfuller (6 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thanks...now I'm hopelessly lost in relistening to early Steeleye Span AND I now know about David Hum.
posted by Sing Fool Sing at 8:32 PM on October 31, 2014


I read the Rossetti and saw the word "ratel" and went to look it up

and do you know what a ratel is my Internet friends

it is the honey badger

it is the very honey badger of which the Internet tells, my friends
posted by gusandrews at 10:08 PM on October 31, 2014 [5 favorites]


I was glad to read the rest of The Fairies. I'd only every heard a snippet in Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies.
posted by Beti at 11:49 PM on October 31, 2014


The Pogues' "Sit Down by the Fire" is a punk tribute to this eerie sub-genre of poetry:
Sit down by the fire
And I'll tell you a story
To send you away to your bed
Of the things you hear creeping
When everyone's sleeping
And you wish you were out here instead

It isn't the mice in the wall
It isn't the wind in the well
But each night they march
Out of that hole in the wall
Passing through on their way
Out of hell

They're the things that you see
When you wake up and scream
The cold things that follow you
Down the Boreen
Good night and God bless, now fuck off to bed.
posted by Doktor Zed at 1:33 AM on November 1, 2014


http://www.alishya.com/literary/skater/

This list needs "Skater of Ghost Lake", my favorite poem in Jr. High.

"Ghost lake's a deep lake, a dark lake and old
Ice black as ebony, frostily scrolled
Moon for a candle, maid for a mate
Jeremy Randall skates, skates late......"
posted by mermayd at 7:04 AM on November 1, 2014


Honey badger: no fucks given, not even in 1862.
posted by ostranenie at 10:21 AM on November 1, 2014


« Older longer than the Bible and with a better afterlife...   |   He who laughs last, laughs longest Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments