Gothic Poems for Twilight Fans

wilight, by Stephanie Meyers, will be interested to know that alluring vampires and menacing werewolves have been around in poetry for centuries. HereÕs gothic poems full of the same atmosphere that makes people love Twilight.Originally Gothic fiction and poetry grew out of the Gothic Revival movement in the 18th century, which combined horror and romance, and started with Horace WalpoleÕs novel The Castle of Otranto in 1764. Gothic literature is full of werewolves, vampires, ruined castles, supernatural menaces, and doomed loves. Later, Romantic writers picked up Gothic themes and continued to explore them, and theyÕve remained an influence in literature to this day.ÒChristabelÓ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is a lengthy poem that was never completed, but boasts a dark and brooding atmosphere from the first moment with its hooting owls and castle clock, worthy of the most gothic heroine ever: Christabel, who encounters the mysterious woman Geraldine deep in the woods. Geraldine is both enticing and frightening, much like TwilightÕs vampires, and sheÕd fit right in with them.The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. Perhaps one of the most parodied poems ever, to the point where it made an appearance on a Simpsons Halloween special, ÒThe RavenÓ is the story of a man mourning his lost love, Annabel Lee, and the spectral raven that visits him, letting him know that he shall see his love ÒNevermoreÓ. Poe is the most famous of the Gothic poets, with plenty of poems filled with doom and supernatural darkness of the gloomiest type possible.John KeatsÕ La Belle Dame sans Merci describes how a knight meets a mysterious woman in the middle of a barren landscape. While the poem uses the title of a 15th century poem, Keats adds his own plot surrounding the beautiful woman and her Fairy origin. The same aura of mystery surrounds Edward Cullen in Twilight at first, making him even attractive to Bella.Robert Browning played with a similar landscape in his poem ÒChilde Roland to the Dark Tower Came,Ó in which a knight makes his way to a mysterious, magical tower. Centuries later, Stephen King referenced this atmospheric and brooding poem in his own Dark Tower series.German poet Goethe wrote plenty of Gothic poems, one of the most famous of which is ÒThe Erl-KingÓ in which a sick child is stolen away by the forces of Fairy and its ruler, the Erl-King, who calls to the child in the most beguiling of terms:ÒCome, baby, sweet baby, with me go away!ÒFine clothes you shall wear, we shall play a fine play!Fine flowers are growing, white, scarlet and blue,ÒOn the banks of yon river, and all are for you.ÓThe idea of abduction by the supernatural, of its invasion of every day life in order to carry someone away, is a common idea in Gothic poetry, while at the same time itÕs one of the main ideas behind the appeal of the Twilight books. And remember that some of those vampires have been around a long time -- some of them may have spoken to the original poets or perhaps even been the original inspiration for Childe Roland.