(Photo by Yours Truly. Skulls from Toscano.)

Today I bring you several recent articles that are perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit. 

1. From Danielle Trussoni for The New York Times: “Grisly Slabs of Gothic Horror.” 

2. From Marc E. Fitch for CrimeReads: “Literature Is Built on a Foundation of Horror.”  

3. From Dr. Sam Hirst for Tor.com: “More Thrilling than Fiction: The Real Life Heroines of the Early Gothic.”

One of the heroines mentioned in the article above is Mary Darby Robinson (1758-1800). Here is an excerpt from her poem “The Haunted Beach” from Lyrical Tales (1800):

And often, while the moaning wind
  Stole o'er the summer ocean,
The moonlight scene was all serene,
  The waters scarce in motion;
Then, while the smoothly slanting sand
  The tall cliff wrapp’d in shade,
The fisherman beheld a band
Of spectres gliding hand in hand–
  Where the green billows play’d.

And pale their faces were as snow,
  And sullenly they wander’d;
And to the skies with hollow eyes
  They look’d as though they ponder’d.
And sometimes, from their hammock shroud,
  They dismal howlings made,
And while the blast blew strong and loud,
The clear moon mark’d the ghastly crowd,
  Where the green billows play’d.

And then above the haunted hut
  The curlews screaming hover’d;
And the low door, with furious roar,
  The frothy breakers cover’d.
For in the fisherman’s lone shed
  A murder’d man was laid,
With ten wide gashes in his head,
And deep was made his sandy bed
  Where the green billows play’d.

Read the complete poem here.

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