The Vampyre

[nortonew]

I've been reading one of the earliest vampire tales ever published, The Vampyre by John Polidori. Its kind of interesting to read stories written in the previous century, just to see how people wrote, and thought, back then. Its also nice and cheap because their copyright has expired and you can get the stories for free off of Project Gutenberg.

Anyhow, there was a pretty cool poem in the story that I thought I would share...

But first on earth, as Vampyre sent,
Thy corpse shall from its tomb be rent;
Then ghastly haunt the native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse,
Thy victims, ere they yet expire,
Shall know the demon for their sire;
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.
But one that for thy crime must fall,
The youngest, best beloved of all,
Shall bless thee with a father's name--
That word shall wrap thy heart in flame!
Yet thou must end thy task and mark
Her cheek's last tinge--her eye's last spark,
And the last glassy glance must view
Which freezes o'er its lifeless blue;
Then with unhallowed hand shall tear
The tresses of her yellow hair,
Of which, in life a lock when shorn
Affection's fondest pledge was worn--
But now is borne away by thee
Memorial of thine agony!
Yet with thine own best blood shall drip;
Thy gnashing tooth, and haggard lip;
Then stalking to thy sullen grave,
Go--and with Gouls and Afrits rave,
Till these in horror shrink away
From spectre more accursed than they.

[odin2]

Nice!
thank's or sharing.

[Adrian]

Is the author Polidori?

I'd like to try to translate this to Estonian.

[JJ Burke]

Go--and with Gouls and Afrits rave,
Till these in horror shrink away
From spectre more accursed than they.

pretty neat poem, but what's the more accursed spectre supposed to be?

[nortonew]

Is the author Polidori?

I'm not sure who the actual author is. I think the poem might originally be from a work called "The Giaour". This appears to be a collection of fragments of Turkish lore translated by Lord Byron.

[nortonew]

pretty neat poem, but what's the more accursed spectre supposed to be?

The "accursed spectre" is a reference to the vampyre. At least, that was my understanding.

[Jesus Prime]

Niiiice.

[Aleister]

Very nice read