Famous Eldritch Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Eldritch poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous eldritch poems. These examples illustrate what a famous eldritch poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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278. On the late Captain Grose's Peregrinations

...el.


By some auld, houlet-haunted biggin,
Or kirk deserted by its riggin,
It’s ten to ane ye’ll find him snug in
 Some eldritch part,
Wi’ deils, they say, L—d save’s! colleaguin
 At some black art.


Ilk ghaist that haunts auld ha’ or chaumer,
Ye gipsy-gang that deal in glamour,
And you, deep-read in hell’s black grammar,
 Warlocks and witches,
Ye’ll quake at his conjuring hammer,
 Ye midnight bitches.


It’s tauld he was a sodger bred,
And ane wad rather fa’n than fled;
But...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


307. Elegy on Captain Matthew Henderson

...shore,
Tell thae far warlds wha lies in clay,
 Wham we deplore.


Ye houlets, frae your ivy bow’r
In some auld tree, or eldritch tow’r,
What time the moon, wi’ silent glow’r,
 Sets up her horn,
Wail thro’ the dreary midnight hour,
 Till waukrife morn!


O rivers, forests, hills, and plains!
Oft have ye heard my canty strains;
But now, what else for me remains
 But tales of woe;
And frae my een the drapping rains
 Maun ever flow.


Mourn, Spring, thou darling of the year!
Ilk ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

310. Tam o' Shanter: A Tale

...As eager runs the market-crowd,
When “Catch the thief!” resounds aloud;
So Maggie runs, the witches follow,
Wi’ mony an eldritch skreich and hollow.


 Ah, Tam! Ah, Tam! thou’ll get thy fairin!
In hell, they’ll roast thee like a herrin!
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin!
Kate soon will be a woefu’ woman!
Now, do thy speedy-utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stone o’ the brig;
There, at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the keystane she could ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

59. Death and Dr. Hornbook

...ns grew,
 Sae white and bonie,
Nae doubt they’ll rive it wi’ the plew;
 They’ll ruin Johnie!”


The creature grain’d an eldritch laugh,
And says “Ye needna yoke the pleugh,
Kirkyards will soon be till’d eneugh,
 Tak ye nae fear:
They’ll be trench’d wi’ mony a sheugh,
 In twa-three year.


“Whare I kill’d ane, a fair strae-death,
By loss o’ blood or want of breath
This night I’m free to tak my aith,
 That Hornbook’s skill
Has clad a score i’ their last claith,
 By drap an’ pil...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

68. The Holy Fair

...pin!
Now meekly calm, now wild in wrath,
 He’s stampin, an’ he’s jumpin!
His lengthen’d chin, his turned-up snout,
 His eldritch squeel an’ gestures,
O how they fire the heart devout,
 Like cantharidian plaisters
 On sic a day!


But hark! the tent has chang’d its voice,
 There’s peace an’ rest nae langer;
For a’ the real judges rise,
 They canna sit for anger,
Smith 4 opens out his cauld harangues,
 On practice and on morals;
An’ aff the godly pour in thrangs,
 To gie the ja...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert


84. Address to the Deil

...glens ye like to stray;
Or where auld ruin’d castles grey
 Nod to the moon,
Ye fright the nightly wand’rer’s way,
 Wi’ eldritch croon.


When twilight did my graunie summon,
To say her pray’rs, douse, honest woman!
Aft’yont the dyke she’s heard you bummin,
 Wi’ eerie drone;
Or, rustlin, thro’ the boortrees comin,
 Wi’ heavy groan.


Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
The stars shot down wi’ sklentin light,
Wi’ you, mysel’ I gat a fright,
 Ayont the lough;
Ye, like a rash-buss, ...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford

...distances
Than one another's noise and clap-your-shoulder.
But think you not, my friend, he'd never talk!
Talk? He was eldritch at it; and we listened -- 
Thereby acquiring much we knew before
About ourselves, and hitherto had held
Irrelevant, or not prime to the purpose.
And there were some, of course, and there be now,
Disordered and reduced amazedly
To resignation by the mystic seal
Of young finality the gods had laid
On everything that made him a young demon;
And one or ...Read more of this...
by Robinson, Edwin Arlington

By an Autumn Fire

...g, 
Poignant and keen 
And all the great boughs of the pines between 
It is harping a lone and hungering strain 
To the eldritch weeping of the rain; 
And then to the wild, wet valley flying 
It is seeking, sighing, 
Something lost in the summer olden. 
When night was silver and day was golden; 
But out on the shore the waves are moaning 
With ancient and never fulfilled desire, 
And the spirits of all the empty spaces, 
Of all the dark and haunted places, 
With the rain and ...Read more of this...
by Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Tam OShanter

...As eager runs the market-crowd,
When "Catch the thief!" resounds aloud;
So Maggie runs, the witches follow,
Wi' mony an eldritch screech and hollow.

Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin!
In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin!
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin!
Kate soon will be a woefu' woman!
Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane of the brig;
There at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the key-stane she could mak...Read more of this...
by Burns, Robert

The Silent Shearer

...ated, 
And the things to be done, and the words to be said, 
Were anxiously awaited. 

With a screech and a howl and an eldritch cry 
That nearly deafened his hearers 
He sprang from his bunk, and his fishy eye 
Looked over the laughing shearers. 

He looked them over and he looked them through 
As a cook might look through a larder; 
"Now, Big Barcoo, I must pick on you, 
You're big, but you'll fall the harder." 

Now, the silent man was but slight and thin 
And of middlewei...Read more of this...
by Paterson, Andrew Barton

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