Inspiration From The Past - Ghost Stories Contest - Kelly Deschler's Blog

In the spirit of Halloween, I just thought that I would share some of these great poems from the past. I hope you will enjoy them, and maybe they can inspire you to write for my next contest - Ghost Stories.

"The Haunted Chamber" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Each heart has its haunted chamber,

Where silent moonlight falls!

On the floor are mysterious footsteps,

There are whispers along the walls!

And mine at times is haunted

By phantoms of the Past,

As motionless as shadows

By the silent moonlight cast.

A form sits by the window,

That is not seen by day,

For as soon as the dawn approaches,

It vanishes away.

It sits there in the moonlight,

Itself as pale and still,

And points with its airy finger

Across the window-sill.

Without, before the window,

There stands a gloomy pine,

Whose boughs wave upward and downward

As wave these thoughts of mine.

And underneath its branches

Is the grave of a little child,

Who died upon life's threshold,

And never wept nor smiled.

What are ye, O pallid phantoms!

That haunt my troubled brain?

That vanish when day approaches,

And at night return again?

What are ye, O pallid phantoms!

But the statues without breath,

That stand on the bridge overarching

The silent river of death?

"The Haunted House" by Vic Crume

Not a window was broken

And the paint wasn't peeling,

Not a porch step sagged -

Yet, there was a feeling

That beyond the door

And into the hall

This was the house of

No one at all.

No one who breathed

Nor laughed, nor ate

Nor said "I love,"

Nor said "I hate."

Yet something walked

Along the stair

Something that was

And wasn't there.

And that is why weeds

On the path grow high,

And even the moon

Races fearfully by -

For something walks

Along the stair -

Something that is

And isn't there.

"Steps Of Ghosts" by John James Piatt

In the olden mansion lying,

That knew me long ago,

I see the far white river

Shivering in the snow.

The moon, so close by the window,

Freezes in the trees with her light -

A glitter of motionless silence,

All the ice-lit branches bright!

Jarring the drowsy stillness,

There are footsteps on the stair,

Lifting their ghostly echoes

From the chambers every-where!

How near they startle the stairway!

I feel the opening door!

Now, far and fainter, and dying,

They echo in me no more!

In a moment the door will open!

How near they grow again! -

They have left the ghost of their silence

Walking within my brain!

Upon the haunted stairway

I have heard them oft before;

In this olden house, returning,

They haunt me evermore.

Strangers have never heard them -

I know they all are mine,

Rising, O heart, and dying

On that haunted stair of thine.

To me forever returning

Myself forever fled,

Startling the stair forever and ever,

I hear my footsteps dead!

O life, make braver thy beating!

the terror on the stair

Is the long, long dread procession

That follows thee every-where!

If you would like more inspiration I would also recommend these poems:

"The Haunted House" by Alice Cary

"The Haunted Palace" by Edgar Allan Poe

"Spirits of The Dead" by Edgar Allan Poe

"The Haunted House" by Thomas Hood