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Classic Vampire Poetry from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth CenturyClassic vampire poetry featuring has been around for a very long time. Humanity has always seemed to possess a love and interest in these most human of the supernatural creatures. In fact, the shift in vampires from stumbling revenents (zombie-like walking corpses) is first evidenced in poetry, not in literature (which is what a modern reader would expect). The undead appear first in poems of German writers in the mid-eighteenth century. It didn't take long to cross the channel to England, and for the English undead to manifest many of the same characteristics of the German Vampire.
The goal of these writers was to leave a mark on the world after death, allowing them to live on through all eternity in one set form; sort of vampiric in essence, is it not? Thus, while the topic might be supernatural in essence, and the ingredients be those of Gothic horror and Gothic romance, the poet has the same tools of the trade as any other poet with which to create his undying creation. These two links will take you to discussions on how to read poetry aloud as the poet intends, and to a discussion on the elements of poetry.
Poetic Structure and Elements
It will open a page featuring a discussion of the various elements. It will open in a separate page, so you could keep it open while reading the poems. The following are the preDracula poems that have been translated into English. A separate section will eventually arrive featuring more modern poetry about vampires.
Contents Organized by Date1748 "Der Vampir" Ossenfelder 1748 Brings the German "Der Vampir," by Heinrich August Ossenfelder. It is the first example of poetry about a Vampire, and at two stanzas,an extremely short poem. Note that there might easily have been earlier vampire poems, both in England and on the Continent, but unless the holders of the extremely rare literature make them known, they don't really count, do they? (I have set these to open in new windows for ease of side-to-side study.) 1790 "Lenora" Göttfried August Bürger This is the version translated into English by Dante Gabriel Rosetti. The vampire is now a soldier capable of riding a horse, and being seen without giving the viewer the heebie-jeebies. There are links to the poem, and to a study-guide. I have set the study-questions to open to a separate page, so you can have the two side-by-side. Study-guide Questions (created for the Rossetti version of "Lenora" 1797 "The Bride of Corinth" Johann Wolfgang von Goethe This poem features the arrival of the female vampire into the early poetry. Note that I am not claiming they didn't exist before, simply that they arrive in the poetry at this point in time. The links which follow will take you to the poem, and to my summary of the poem. I highly recommend reading the summary side-by-side with the poem since the poem is quite complex (and just a bit boring)! To enable this, I am setting the summary to open a new page, and the top link will take you to the poem. Summary for Goethe's "The Bride of Corinth" Goethe's "Skeleton Dance" Arguably this Goethe poem about a skeleton rising to dance with, and haunt / torture, a prison warden fits into the vampire category. It has risen from its grave and is interacting with still-mortal folks after all. Anyway, it is fun.
1801 "Thalaba the Destroyer" Robert Southey 1801 "Thalaba the Destroyer" Robert Southey. Book seven has a section in which the vampire is featured. I am focusing only on that section. The vampire segment features a husband and the father of the dead Onieza. She returns as a vampire to try to tempt her husband to forsake his faith and lose his confidence. Her father winds up staking her, she is happy since now she can go to heaven. All are content. (Female vampire)
1810 "The Vampire" John Stagg This poem presents a unique blend of prose and poetry. It begins with an "argument" section, which is then followed by an extended rhymed poem. That said, it belongs just as well in the prose story section since it features a dialogue format and basically tells the story of vampires crawling into bed with friends and sucking them dry, which then creates another vampire. Gertrude notes her husband Herman is getting paler and weaker every day. She finds out from him that his dead fried Sigismund is nightly drinking his blood. Herman dies of it, Gertrude tells what has occurred (demon possession/goblin/vampire). The Church steps in and stake both men’s corpses.(Male vampire)
Click here for notes on Stagg's poem 1813 "The Giaour" Lord Byron Yes, that Lord Byron. He was nothing if not prolific. "The Giaour" has a section that deals with a Christian vampire in Muslim Turkey. The Christian becomes a vampire after being slain in battle, only because he is a Christian. If you wonder how the vampire stanzas fit into the poem as a whole, the Supernatural Bookstore now offers a Study Guide to the poem.
Click here to look at the details! The Vampire Walks in Beauty: Bryon and Leslie Technically this probably doesn't fit here. But it is Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" rewritten to be vampire lit. It doesn't really fit anywhere... the Lord Byron part makes it not-modern, while my messin' with it makes it not quite Byron anymore. But since this is my site, here it is.
1816 "Christabel" Samuel Taylor Coleridge This poem by Coleridge if very explicit, and I would rate it an "R." This is a poem in which Christabel befriends Geraldine after finding her all dressed up under an oak tree. She invites her in, even sharing her bed with her since it is late and she doesn’t want to wake the household. Considered vampire because of the threshold scene. – iron threshold = fairy to me. (Female vampire)
1819 "Lamia" John Keats 1819 "Lamia" by John Keats is about a Greek vampire. ” Snake lady Lamia falls in love with a Greek youth, Lycius, talks Hermesinto making her human, meets and loves youth until their marriage night when the creepy, over-intellectual tutor Apollonius. She reverts to snake when exposed, and Lycius dies also, poisoned by snake? (Female vampire) Since this is my own site, I can argue that while this features a supernatural cast, this isn't a vampire story. It is more a "Little Mermaid" story.
1820 "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" John Keats in 1820 John Keats produced the ballad "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." It features a supernatural female predator who is pale and appears to enervate males with whom she comes into contact, I wouldn't really call her a vampire. The knight meets her on a hill and she lures him to her den where she enervates him perennially. (Told 1st person, no names.) (Female vampire)
1833 The Vampire Bride by Liddell Henry Thomas Liddell Ravensworth (Earl of)published this poem in collection with several other poems. Perhaps most telling is that this poem "The Vampire Bride" gets listed along with "The Wizard of the North" as the title. It says what the publisher thought the buying public would find worth spending money on. Sound familiar if you've been to a bookstore recently? Begins as Count Albert marries the beautiful unnamed virgin in St. Peter’s Church, but not before his ring falls off his finger and rolls under the chancel. It is morning, and they must wait all day before nuptial time. He goes with the boys to play tennis, and since his ring keeps falling off, he places it on the finger of a statue. He can’t get it off. Statue thinks he is now married to her. She is a vampire and she renders bride and all present to sleep, and has her bloody drink out of his breast. Bride, needless to say, is upset. This happens a few nights in a row, until Bride has a vision/instructions from Mother Mary telling her where to find the vampire, and how to destroy it. While choristers sing, they pull part of the altar down, find the coffin, and “thrust a dart through it’s darksome heart” and it bleeds out to a shriveled raison. They cast it forth from the castle wall. He has his ring and has been saved by his bride. (Female vampire)
1844 Théophile Gautier “Clarimonde” This visitant is the shade of the narrators dead wife. He loves her so much that he visualizes her coming back from her coffin to haunt him. He thinks this because he finds a few “yellow bruises” on his body with no cause. Included because he mentions possibility that she, as vampire, came with “lips blood-crimsoned” to suck his veins. (Female vampire)
1845 James Maxwell, "The Vampyre" What you have just opened by clicking the hyper-link is the original language of the 1845 vampire poem by James Clerk Maxwell. To say the language is a difficult read is simplistic; it's a bear. The Scot's burr of the high-land comes through even given the non-standard spelling. This is why I have provided a modernized version below. This knight, the supposed epitome of virtue is riding through a forest where he sees a beautiful fair maid. He is supposed to be hurrying a message. Instead he lets her talk him into a bit of dalliance. He accompanies her onto her little house-boat where he discovers that this is a female he already “did.” He sees her pale cheek, the blood on her lips. She calls him on his faithlessness. She cannot rest until she “suck the blood of the man who did her ill.” He tells her to get away. She sucks him dry. She is a vampire of female revenge. (Female vampire)
Modernized Language Version (1845) "The Vampire" by Maxwell 1852 Vasile Alecsandri “The Vampire” Short odd poem by the early Romanian poet. It is about the location, the gothic-ness, if you will, of finding a ruined cross on top of a high cliff. It has withstood many tempests, and it stands alone. He speculates that since no grass or trees grow near it, and groaning can be heard when the wind brushes against it. He counsels travelers to avoid it, hurry by, because underneath it is a vampire! Once more the tragedy is caused by the male lover abandoning the female lover. His horse takes fright, and he plunges downward into the stream, and is victim of the vampire.
1857 "Metamorphosis of a Vampire" Charles Baudelaire 1857 adds the theologically rich poem "Metamorphosis of a Vampire" by Charles Baudelaire. It features a seductive female vampire that represents the female as temptation and sin. Read it for yourself; it is both short and highly readable. This version is the translation by Emily Dickenson. Interesting poem which is as much about addiction and obsession as it is about vampires. Here vampire is a metaphor for a gambler who yet once more plays at dice, a drunkard who once more drinks, and the vermin that kills carrion. He posits that we carry the vampire within us, possessed by them.
Authur Symon's translation of "Metamporhosis"
Here is a pocket analysis of the poem.
Quick Analysis of "Metamporphosis of a Vampire" (1857) "The Vampire" by Charles Baudelaire: Translated by Arthur Symons This poem by Charles Baudelaire, while we are told it is about a vampire, could as easily be in the metaphor section of this website. This is as much about addiction as it is about a vampire. 1882 Owen Meredith (Robert, Lord Lytton's)"The Vampyre" Owen Meredith (Robert, Lord Lytton) published a little known vampire poem in 1882: "The Vampyre." It once more features a female vampire brought back to life by the male writer. This electonic version is fairly rare on the internet; and the book just sort of fell into my hands. So here it is.
1896 Symons “The Vampire” Woman as traditional vampire except the death here could easily be that of sexual orgasm.
1897 "The Vampire" Rudyard Kipling 1897, Rudyard Kipling published his wonderful poem "The Vampire." It is about a seductive female gold-digger. Oops! Vampire, I meant to type vampire. Below is a link to a feminist reading of Kipling's vamp.
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