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  • gothic
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gothic

The Listeners - by Walter de la Mare

{ Poem }

‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
/ Knocking on the moonlit door;
/ And his horse in…

The Darkling Thrush - by Thomas Hardy

{ Poem }

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited

Bela Lugosi in Stornoway - by Donald S. Murray

{ Poem }

I was definitely typed, doomed
to be an exponent of evil

grave dust - by Sam Riviere

{ Poem }

The night I got grave dust on my hands after dusting off my mother’s grave / I was lent a…

‘The Black Belt’ - by Jean Guthrie-Smith

{ Poem }

Gruff trams and trains criss-cross and intersect
/ With glittering steel this leprous countryside;
/ Pyramid slagheaps threaten, seamed and specked
/ With smouldering pink: a…

From Macbeth - by William Shakespeare

{ Poem }

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
/ The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
/ I have thee…

A Dead Man - by Roderick Watson Kerr

{ Poem }

A dead man dead for weeks
/ Is sickening food for lover’s eye
/ That seeks and ever seeks
/ A fair one’s beauty…

Hooge - by Roderick Watson Kerr

{ Poem }

The moon – frozen eye –
/ Stares down stupidly,
/ And the wind licks
/ A few bare sticks,
/ Once trees:
/
/ And near the craters…

Baltic Street - by Violet Jacob

{ Poem }

/ My dainty lass, lay you the blame
/ Upon the richtfu’ heid;
/ ‘Twas daft ill-luck that bigg’d yer hame
/ …

Demotic Nocturne (Nocturne vulgaire) - by Ciaran Carson

{ Poem }

A breath cleaves operatic breaches in the walls
/ of shimmery, dilapidated marble halls,
/
/ disperses all the boundaries of hearth and home,
/ and blurs…

The Madwoman’s Roof - by Luljeta Lleshanaku

{ Poem }

She is history, unable to cast blame on anyone. / She is the skeleton key, the collective curse / on…

The Tomb of Edgar Allan Poe - by Stéphane Mallarmé

{ Poem }

Such as into Himself at last eternity changes him, / the Poet with a naked sword provokes / his century…

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Scottish Poetry Library
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© Scottish Poetry Library 2026.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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