gothic poetry
Dark romantic stanzas
Gothic poetry is verse that emphasizes darkness, death, the supernatural, and intense emotion.
The tradition emerged in the late 18th century alongside gothic novels, dwelling on haunted landscapes, decay, madness, and the macabre.
Poe's work exemplifies the form: The Raven broods on loss and a spectral bird.
The label now covers any poetry with these atmospheric preoccupations, from Romantic-era graveyard verse to contemporary dark romanticism.
- cryptsSubterranean burial chambers
- haunted castleSpirit-inhabited medieval fortress
- deathCessation of life
- eerie atmospherePervasive sense of dread
- moonNatural planetary satellite
pale moonlight · midnight hour · eternal night · blood · elegiac · Ann Radcliffe · decay · Baudelaire · Romanticism · Horace Walpole · memento mori · Edgar Allan Poe · chiaroscuro · tragic hero · medieval revival · emotional intensity · dramatic contrasts · graveyards
- poetry typeshaiku, sonnet, limerick, ballad, ode
- American PoetryWalt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes
gothic poetrylight verse
Humorous, often rhyming poetry
nursery rhymes · greeting card verse · comic verse · humorous verse · humorous poetry