We have a special, magical realm on campus called a library, and it’s filled with books of scary poetry and short stories sure to make your skin crawl this Halloween.
After carving pumpkins or egging houses, impress your friends with a reading from classic literature. Turn out all the lights, grab a candle,or a flashlight if you're in a dorm, and read aloud from some great classics.
There is the classic short story, The Tell-Tale Heart by master of Gothic fiction, Edgar Allan Poe. In this particular spooky tale, the narrator constantly tries to convince the reader that he is sane, all the while describing his killing of “the old man with the filmy eye.”
His guilty conscience has deceived him into thinking the old man’s heart is still beating under the floorboards, and when the police arrive, he’s already given himself away.
Porphyria’s Lover is another chilling short read written by Robert Browning. At the heart of the Victorian Age, this poem exploits many things upright, proper citizens tried so desperately to avoid, or at least conceal. Sex and violence are unsettling undertones of this short monologue.
In the poem, a man is enjoying the evening at a cottage in the country with his lover, Porphyria, who is described as a wholesome young girl. The character is describing the evening and how blissfully happy he is, sounding sanely in love as if there is such a thing. While reading further you get to see how one night of a blissful moment becomes tragically murderous.
After you're finished with these, check out this list of other creepy classics:
"All Souls" by Edith Wharton
"The Apparition" by John Donne
"Tithonus" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes
"Totentanz" by Goethe
"A Child’s Nightmare: by Robert Graves.
"After Hearing a Waltz by Bartok" by Amy Lowell
