Poems Bewitched and Haunted

Edited by John Hollander
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Hardcover
$20.00 US
On sale Sep 13, 2005 | 256 Pages | 9781400043880
A delightfully ghoulish array of specters and sorceresses, witches and ghosts, hags and apparitions haunt these pages—a literary parade of phantoms and shades to add to the revelry of All Hallow’s Eve.

From Homer to Horace, Pope to Poe, Randall Jarrell to James Merrill, Poems Bewitched and Haunted draws on three thousand years of poetic forays into the supernatural. Ovid conjures the witch Medea, Virgil channels Aeneas’s wife from the afterlife, Baudelaire lays bare the wiles of the incubus, and Emily Dickinson records two souls conversing in a crypt, in poems that call out to be read aloud, whether around the campfire or the Ouija board. From ballads and odes, to spells and chants, to dialogues and incantations, here is a veritable witches’ brew of poems from the spirit world.
Foreword
 
ARRIGO BOITO Exordium
SAMUEL ROGERS From Ode to Superstition
 
HAGS AND BEAUTIES
HOMER Circè the Enchantress
JOHN BYRNE LEICESTER WARREN The Island of Circe
TORQUATO TASSO Rinaldo is Warned of the Witch Armida
EDMUND SPENSER A Witch Exposed
ANTHONY HECHT The Witch of Endor
PIERRE DE RONSARD Invective Against Denise, a Witch
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE(?) AND THOMAS MIDDLETON The Witch Hecate Gets Her
     Crew Together
ROBERT HERRICK The Hag
JAMES HOGG The Witch o’ Fife
NAHUM TATE The Witches Who Hate Dido
JOHANN PETER HEBEL The Hexli (Little Witch)
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY A Lovely Witch’s Cave
CHARLES G. LELAND The Witch
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE The Witch-Mother
WILLIAM VAUGHAN MOODY The Amber-Witch
MADISON CAWEIN The Town Witch
MADISON CAWEIN The Wood Witch
ENRIQUE DIEZ CANEDO The Young Witch
ROBERT FROST The Pauper Witch of Grafton
VACHEL LINDSAY The Patient Witch
LEONORA SPEYER Witch!
ADELAIDE CRAPSEY The Witch
ROBERT GRAVES The Two Witches
 
DANGEROUS PROCEDURES
OVID The Witch Medea at Work
THEOCRITUS The Sorceress
HORACE Canidia and Friends Steal a Boy
JOHN DONNE Witchcraft by a Picture
EDMUND SPENSER The False Florimell
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Three Witches Cook Something Up
ROBERT HERRICK To Bring in the Witch
JOHN DRYDEN A Spell
JAMES HOGG A Witch’s Chant
 
DANGEROUS VENUES
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Ghosts’ Moonshine
EDGAR ALLAN POE The Haunted Palace
THOMAS HOOD The Haunted House
GEORGE MOSES HORTON The Fearful Traveler in the Haunted Castle
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW The Haunted Chamber
ALICE CARY The Haunted House
TRISTAN CORBIÈRE Evil Landscape
EMMA LAZARUS Haunted Spot
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Haunted House
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR The Haunted Oak
GEORG TRAKL Evening
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Haunted Houses
 
DANGEROUS WOOERS
ANON. Tom Linn
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE The Erl-King
HEINRICH HEINE The Lorelei
JOHN KEATS La Belle Dame Sans Merci
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Phantom-Wooer
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE The Incubus
 
OTHER APPARITIONS
SAMUEL BUTLER On Apparitions
JOHN DONNE The Apparition
HEINRICH HEINE The Double
ANN RADCLIFFE The Snow-Fiend
THOMAS CAMPBELL The Spectre Boat. A Ballad
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY The Spectral Horseman
ALEXANDER PUSHKIN The Demons
WILLIAM BARNES White in the Night
JOHN BANNISTER TABB Phantoms
EMMA LAZARUS The Will-o’-the-Wisp
MADISON CAWEIN Will-o’-the-Wisp
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Windy Nights
GIOVANNI PASCOLI The Grey Mare
THOMAS HARDY At the Piano
THOMAS HARDY Who’s in the Next Room?
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Luke Havergal
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS The Apparitions
ITZIK MANGER The Ballad of the White Glow
JAMES MERRILL Voices from the Other World
 
CEREMONIALS
JAMES GRAHAME From October: Nearing Hallowe’en
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Walpurgis-Night
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Warning
 
A CHOICE OF GHOSTS
VIRGIL Aeneas Meets His Dead Wife
ALEXANDER POPE The Ghosts of Beauty
DAVID MALLET Margaret’s Ghost
FRIEDRICH HEBBEL Ghost
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Phantom
MATTHEW G. (‘MONK’) LEWIS Janet Curses Ronald, Her Betrayer
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Old Ghost
THE´ OPHILE GAUTIER The Ghost of a Rose
EMILY DICKINSON The Only Ghost I Ever Saw
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX The Ghosts
EMILY DICKINSON Two Ghosts Converse
PAUL VERLAINE Sentimental Conversation
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI The Ghost’s Petition
JOHN JAMES PIATT Steps of Ghosts
DORA SIGERSON The Banshee
FRANCIS WILLIAM BOURDILLON A Ghost
EDITH NESBIT The Ghost
THOMAS HARDY The Haunter
VACHEL LINDSAY Ghosts in Love
JOHN CROWE RANSOM Spectral Lovers
MARK VAN DOREN The Orchard Ghost
RANDALL JARRELL A Ghost Story
MARK VAN DOREN No Ghosts
ROBERT GRAVES No More Ghosts
 
THE LIGHTER SIDE
THOMAS HOOD Mary’s Ghost: A Pathetic Ballad
ANDREW LANG Ballade of a Choice of Ghosts
W. S. GILBERT A Dreadful Legend
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Little Orphant Annie
MONA VAN DUYN A Bedtime Story
 
Acknowledgments
Index of Authors

About

A delightfully ghoulish array of specters and sorceresses, witches and ghosts, hags and apparitions haunt these pages—a literary parade of phantoms and shades to add to the revelry of All Hallow’s Eve.

From Homer to Horace, Pope to Poe, Randall Jarrell to James Merrill, Poems Bewitched and Haunted draws on three thousand years of poetic forays into the supernatural. Ovid conjures the witch Medea, Virgil channels Aeneas’s wife from the afterlife, Baudelaire lays bare the wiles of the incubus, and Emily Dickinson records two souls conversing in a crypt, in poems that call out to be read aloud, whether around the campfire or the Ouija board. From ballads and odes, to spells and chants, to dialogues and incantations, here is a veritable witches’ brew of poems from the spirit world.

Table of Contents

Foreword
 
ARRIGO BOITO Exordium
SAMUEL ROGERS From Ode to Superstition
 
HAGS AND BEAUTIES
HOMER Circè the Enchantress
JOHN BYRNE LEICESTER WARREN The Island of Circe
TORQUATO TASSO Rinaldo is Warned of the Witch Armida
EDMUND SPENSER A Witch Exposed
ANTHONY HECHT The Witch of Endor
PIERRE DE RONSARD Invective Against Denise, a Witch
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE(?) AND THOMAS MIDDLETON The Witch Hecate Gets Her
     Crew Together
ROBERT HERRICK The Hag
JAMES HOGG The Witch o’ Fife
NAHUM TATE The Witches Who Hate Dido
JOHANN PETER HEBEL The Hexli (Little Witch)
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY A Lovely Witch’s Cave
CHARLES G. LELAND The Witch
ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE The Witch-Mother
WILLIAM VAUGHAN MOODY The Amber-Witch
MADISON CAWEIN The Town Witch
MADISON CAWEIN The Wood Witch
ENRIQUE DIEZ CANEDO The Young Witch
ROBERT FROST The Pauper Witch of Grafton
VACHEL LINDSAY The Patient Witch
LEONORA SPEYER Witch!
ADELAIDE CRAPSEY The Witch
ROBERT GRAVES The Two Witches
 
DANGEROUS PROCEDURES
OVID The Witch Medea at Work
THEOCRITUS The Sorceress
HORACE Canidia and Friends Steal a Boy
JOHN DONNE Witchcraft by a Picture
EDMUND SPENSER The False Florimell
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Three Witches Cook Something Up
ROBERT HERRICK To Bring in the Witch
JOHN DRYDEN A Spell
JAMES HOGG A Witch’s Chant
 
DANGEROUS VENUES
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Ghosts’ Moonshine
EDGAR ALLAN POE The Haunted Palace
THOMAS HOOD The Haunted House
GEORGE MOSES HORTON The Fearful Traveler in the Haunted Castle
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW The Haunted Chamber
ALICE CARY The Haunted House
TRISTAN CORBIÈRE Evil Landscape
EMMA LAZARUS Haunted Spot
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Haunted House
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR The Haunted Oak
GEORG TRAKL Evening
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Haunted Houses
 
DANGEROUS WOOERS
ANON. Tom Linn
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE The Erl-King
HEINRICH HEINE The Lorelei
JOHN KEATS La Belle Dame Sans Merci
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Phantom-Wooer
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE The Incubus
 
OTHER APPARITIONS
SAMUEL BUTLER On Apparitions
JOHN DONNE The Apparition
HEINRICH HEINE The Double
ANN RADCLIFFE The Snow-Fiend
THOMAS CAMPBELL The Spectre Boat. A Ballad
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY The Spectral Horseman
ALEXANDER PUSHKIN The Demons
WILLIAM BARNES White in the Night
JOHN BANNISTER TABB Phantoms
EMMA LAZARUS The Will-o’-the-Wisp
MADISON CAWEIN Will-o’-the-Wisp
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Windy Nights
GIOVANNI PASCOLI The Grey Mare
THOMAS HARDY At the Piano
THOMAS HARDY Who’s in the Next Room?
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Luke Havergal
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS The Apparitions
ITZIK MANGER The Ballad of the White Glow
JAMES MERRILL Voices from the Other World
 
CEREMONIALS
JAMES GRAHAME From October: Nearing Hallowe’en
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Walpurgis-Night
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Warning
 
A CHOICE OF GHOSTS
VIRGIL Aeneas Meets His Dead Wife
ALEXANDER POPE The Ghosts of Beauty
DAVID MALLET Margaret’s Ghost
FRIEDRICH HEBBEL Ghost
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Phantom
MATTHEW G. (‘MONK’) LEWIS Janet Curses Ronald, Her Betrayer
THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES The Old Ghost
THE´ OPHILE GAUTIER The Ghost of a Rose
EMILY DICKINSON The Only Ghost I Ever Saw
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX The Ghosts
EMILY DICKINSON Two Ghosts Converse
PAUL VERLAINE Sentimental Conversation
CHRISTINA ROSSETTI The Ghost’s Petition
JOHN JAMES PIATT Steps of Ghosts
DORA SIGERSON The Banshee
FRANCIS WILLIAM BOURDILLON A Ghost
EDITH NESBIT The Ghost
THOMAS HARDY The Haunter
VACHEL LINDSAY Ghosts in Love
JOHN CROWE RANSOM Spectral Lovers
MARK VAN DOREN The Orchard Ghost
RANDALL JARRELL A Ghost Story
MARK VAN DOREN No Ghosts
ROBERT GRAVES No More Ghosts
 
THE LIGHTER SIDE
THOMAS HOOD Mary’s Ghost: A Pathetic Ballad
ANDREW LANG Ballade of a Choice of Ghosts
W. S. GILBERT A Dreadful Legend
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Little Orphant Annie
MONA VAN DUYN A Bedtime Story
 
Acknowledgments
Index of Authors