31 Days of Halloween: Dark Poems of Autumn, October and All Hallow's Eve

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The name - of it - is "Autumn" -

The hue - of it - is Blood -

An Artery - upon the Hill -

A Vein - along the Road -

Great Globules - in the Alleys -

And Oh, the Shower of Stain -

When Winds - upset the Basin -

And spill the Scarlet Rain -

It sprinkles Bonnets - far below -

It gathers ruddy Pools -

Then - eddies like a Rose - away -

Upon Vermilion Wheels –

-Emily Dickinson

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Fancy returns, and now she thinks of bones

And grinning skulls, and corruptible death

Wrapp'd in his shroud; and now fancies she hears

Deep sighs, and sees pale sickly ghosts gliding.

-William Blake

from "Fair Elenor"

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The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crispéd and sere -

The leaves they were withering and sere;

It was night in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year.

-Edgar Allan Poe

from "Ulalume: A Ballad"

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!

The moon is full and bright

And we shall see what can't be seen

On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,

Grinning goblins fighting duels,

Werewolves rising from their tombs,

Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns

we haunt the street

And knock on doors

for trick or treat.

Tonight we are

the king and queen,

For oh tonight

it's Halloween!

-Jack Prelutsky

from It's Halloween

 Illustration from Arnold Lobel from Jack Prelutsky's 

Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep

There's a house upon the hilltop

We will not go inside

For that is where the witches live,

Where ghosts and goblins hide.

Tonight they have their party,

All the lights are burning bright,

But oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

The demons there are whirling

And the spirits swirl about.

They sing their songs to Halloween.

"Come join the fun," they shout.

But we do not want to go there

So we run with all our might

And oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

-Jack Prelutsky

“Haunted House” from Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep

Trick or Treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat!