The Legend
I.
Mother—behold
The pale man there—
With haughty air,
And look so cold!
“—Child—child beware
The pale man there!
Turn thee away
Or thou’rt his prey!
Ah! Many a maiden, young and fair,
Hath fallen his victim, in the snare!
Hath drunken death
From his poisonous breath:
List—list, my child! A Vampyre he!
Heaven keep his demon glance from thee!”
II.
What, mother, doth the pale man there?
With look so full of dark despair?
“Child, child! Those fearful glances shun:
Foul deeds of evil hath he done!
Such is his doom!
Though long since dead,
He cannot rest within the tomb!
Forth he has fled,
to wander round—
A living corpse o’er hallowed ground!
From house to house he takes his way,
A fair bride seeking for his prey:
His chosen bride was lost for aye!”
III.
He smiles on me—
The pale man—see!
And kind his look, those sad and wild! —
“Still look’st there!—alas, my child!
Haste—haste—the danger fly—
The mother’s warning is in vain;
The pale man’s spells the maid enchain;
At midnight, fast she flies
By the light of those fierce eyes—
Now she herself—so runs the tale—
Wanders o’er earth, a Vampyre pale.
* * * *
the lines i highlighted while reading, from the story "The Vampyre" by Elizabeth Ellet.
i also quite liked "The mysterious wedding" by Heinrich Steffans, "The burial by fire" by Louisa Medina Hamblin and "A peep at death" by Peter von Geist.