Greetings Poe Fans:
In honor of Poe’s anniversary birth date, January 19, I’ve selected his poem, “Spirits of the Dead” to mark my Tales of Terror blog for this day. The full text of the poem is below. This, in hopes that his spirit will rally forth as you read it, is my deepest desire—to truly feel the spirits of the dead authors we read.
This poem is moody and wonderfully atmospheric with dark thoughts on a windy night.
If you’d prefer a read aloud, click the link. This is a YouTube 2-minute dramatic reading, with phantasmic organ music that is sure to haunt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gLUrPwP5SY
Spirits Of The Dead
Thy soul shall find itself alone
‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.
The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.
Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne’er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.
The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!
Edgar Allan Poe
Please stop in every Tuesday for more Tales of Terror, free short stories by the classic horror masters of literature. I invite you to poke around my blog to read other tales by Hawthorne, Lovecraft, MR James and more.
Paula
