Poetry of the Supernatural

by Unknown

I have 'nointed myself with infant's fat,
The fiends have been my slaves.
From sleeping babes I have sucked the breath,
And breaking by charms the sleep of death,
I have call'd the dead from their graves.
And the Devil will fetch me now in fire
My witchcrafts to atone;
And I who have troubled the dead man's grave
Will never have rest in my own.

Stephens, Riccardo. The Phantom Piper. (In The Book of Highland Verse.)

But when the year is at its close
Right down the road to Hell he goes.
There the gaunt porters all agrin
Fling back the gates to let him in,
Then damned and devil, one and all,
Make mirth and hold high carnival.

Swinburne, Algernon Charles. After Death. (In Poems and Ballads, First Series.)

The four boards of the coffin lid
Heard all the dead man did.

The first curse was in his mouth,
Made of grave's mould and deadly drouth.

Taylor, William. Lenore.

The most successful rendering of Bürger's much-translated "Lenore," and the direct inspiration of Scott's "William and Helen."

Tramp, tramp across the land they speede,
Splash, splash across the sea:
"Hurrah! The dead can ride apace.
Dost fear to ride with me?"

Watson, Rosamund Marriott-. The Farm on the Links. (In The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse.)