Many will have a horror of poetry. Possibly this was inculcated by being forced to wrestle with Beowulf and Chaucer in school English Literature lessons; then having to endure dire performance poets at “open mic” student nights while at university; and perhaps also by a simple 21st century incomprehension of any media form that does not immediately reveal its meanings. But poetry can have a horror all its own. Evan Peterson mused on the form a few weeks ago, in his article “Intimate Monsters: Examining the Value of Horror in Poetry“. I was inspired by this article to go in search of similar open access articles, and found “Fresh Graves: An Essay On Horror Poetry“; “The Stigma of Horror Poetry“; and “Horror Poetry: Why The Hell Would You Want to Write That Shit?“. There is also a newsletter, Dark Metre: The Free Newsletter For Horror Poetry which was started in 2011 and which has so far produced a laudible 11 issues. I also noticed that there’s a mild debate on ‘can heavy metal music lyrics count as horror poetry?’
Twas brillig, and the slithy poems did gyre and gimble in the wabe…
30 Friday Dec 2011
Posted Lovecraftian arts
in
evanjpeterson said:
My thanks for the link and tip of the tentacle! I hope you’ll keep following my monthly feature, and horror poetry in general. Feel free to check out what else I have on my website.