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