Quotessence
Home / Topics / Gothic Poetry Quotes

Gothic Poetry Quotes

Browse 22 quotes about Gothic Poetry.

Gothic Poetry Quotes

“A Mind's Minotaur - A Soliloquy by Stewart Stafford In a labyrinth’s mental corridors, prisoner of consciousness, Fleeing a Minotaur I fear is me. Achilles' heel, masked by strength hath shown, An arrow cometh from Time's swift flight, For those with bountiful time enow, Find themselves slain in a heroic light. When thou dost gaze upon the world below, And scorn its depths, thou canst not comprehend The truths that pool o'er its shadow, glow. No tears stain that meadow of solace, A phantom limb, tickling in memory's store, Galley slaves in hurricane's heart so lashed. Transient madness and renown, conjoin on pomp’s bridge, Champions of the joust wave paramour's kerchief, Revered statues limp from a pedestal's ridge. The signs of pride and brittle ardour, The hubristic bite of isolation's cur. The death warrant quill must ne'er be stilled, For authority doth stifle beauty's song, Staged chaos through the written word is willed. Phantasy's balm to verity's scourging, A cleansing soak of battle-scarred minds, And in the dark, imagination reigns. He who hath fear of the dark hath vision keen, Whilst those who see but naught are dull and plain. Thus, let us not be swayed by others' lore, But splay in error, heal to prosper once more. Idolatrous moth to lechery's candlelight, In lover's tongues, passion's seared delight. © 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

ImaginationHuman NatureReflectionExistentialismMortalityPsychological FictionPhilosophical PoetryGothic PoetryShakespeareanSoliloquy
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“Ebb and Flow by Stewart Stafford Happiness, briefest harbour in a squall; Tempests funnel us to splintered docks, High-seas missions to a last port of call, Fading feast taste of a haven of stasis. Weather springs with raging misprision, All things far beyond fingertip calculation, If we go off course with Fool's Gold vision, The reefs of avarice shall starkly claim us. We set sail or are torn from fragile sanctuary, All these stays, noted in the strangers' ledger, The Fate Morgana's captain - marine actuary, Virtual kin crew with fish and fowl companions. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

FateExistentialismMortalityImpermanenceNauticalDark PoetryGothic PoetryMaritime StoriesSea PoetryOcean Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Night When Fear Strays by Stewart Stafford Each Hallowtide, all monstrous shapes do quail, No balm for wounded wretches feeling frail, Spectators as charlatan mortals filch frights, Appropriated skins on haunted nights. With bonfire’s glow ablaze in dauntless eyes, Children’s fun quelled by strangest sighs, A hulking shape, once fierce, wails tainted, Its fearful gaze in phantom mists attainted. Small, tender hands caressed its sodden fur, A trembling growl betrayed its lonesome blur, “Peace, gentle shade, what sorrow stirs unfed?” “November’s dawn shall call me home,” it said. Their kindly-shared oat cakes eased its pangs, A webbed claw from veiled night to munching fangs, It feasted with a hunger born of striven years alone, Stroked the child’s cheek for the kindness shown. When parents called, it whispered, soft and torn, “At midnight’s knell, this thicket heralds morn— Go, kindred babes, I’ll linger in this glade. Each Halloween, I’ll mourn my fear remade.” © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

LonelinessEmpathyHalloweenDark FantasyAppropriationFrankensteinGothic PoetryMary ShelleyMonster LoveLost Identity
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“Cyclops Hill by Stewart Stafford To the cock-fights, O’er the briny pit, Grimy coin, grubby fist, Lip service i’ foaming fit. Fish or fowl, bestir them on, I’ll ne’er stop mine’s feat, An oracle for all-comers, Frolicsome backing i’ th’ heat. Odds be the usurer’s friend, Victor and vanquished spent, Trudge away in silent mourn, To kindly pay the tavern’s rent. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

SexInnuendoDouble EntendreGothic PoetryShakespeareanElizabethan PoetryBawdy ComedyCockfightingAnatomical MetaphorDark Satire
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Silken Trap by Stewart Stafford Beware chimera beauty's charm! Faux-demure, eyes downcast. A raging rutting season over her; Spideress-gossamer entrapped. She casts bait with arid hooks, Covertly spinning sentient silk, Soon swept up/wed/heirs sired— Promulgating the snare's traffic. A flash fire of rival suitors ignites, Fans herself to mask her smirk, The webbed game her hand to play— Vault’s hasp clicks shut on her pulse. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

ManipulationFemme FataleMind GamesPower DynamicsGothic PoetryPsychological HorrorDark FeminineSeductressToxic FemininitySpideress
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Christmas Crasher or Merry Crisis & Happy New Fear (The Yule-Get-Yours Scapegoat) A Poem by Stewart Stafford A malevolent sprite in our living room, A mouldy Púca in the Christmas tree, Bauble-gleam eyes in festive branches, A sulphur stink while we watch TV. Swallowing a window candle flame; A fire-eater’s trick to no applause, Season’s sweets wolfed down— Even wrappers, devoured without pause. A fridge raid’s boozy-woozy walk, A true eggnog nuisance — every inch, Crash — a muffled, 'Timber! God rest ya!' So loud, we thought it was The Grinch! My parents demanded it come out: "A wrecked tree and hangover’s enough!" It pleaded against eviction in the cold, Squatter’s rights for lack of sterner stuff! Seated at the Xmas dinner table, Tossing scraps to our strange ‘pet’ below, Foghorn burp aria, a puked tinsel encore, Pine-needle toothpick snores in fake snow. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

Dark HumorScroogeIrish FolkloreGothic PoetryA Christmas CarolMonty PythonChristmas PoetryHorror PoemThe GrinchHoliday Humor
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Physician's Pageant by Stewart Stafford Can aught endure the masquerade Of this world's blindfolded night? Melancholy's strike doth calm the raving, As babes roused from stillbirth in fledgling light. We know that the womb doth wander, Around the body, causing ills without care, A pessary's charm doth anchor it in place again, As bait doth lure the quarry to the snare. Burn sulfur, rosemary, lavender and juniper, Or foul dung smoke to cleanse tainted rural air. Light aromatic torches in the playhouse and market, Let vile odours and miasmas in these spaces beware. Though ragged contagion and death still doth assail, God willing, some blessed souls still shalt prevail. © 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

ResilienceDeath And DyingHuman ConditionMedical HistoryPhilosophical PoetryDisease And DeathGothic PoetryHistorical PoetryShakespearean SonnetsRenaissance Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“On Darkest Paths by Stewart Stafford Temporal loop on a ravenous street, A vampire denied a ticking heartbeat, Restless spirit of night's prettified edge, Bound acolyte of the infinite pledge. Human life, another planet’s memory, This skittish flock, a prized delicacy, Blood frenzy mingles with death's choir, A living essence merged with undead fire. No loving touch nor warmth of light, I must stay numb, shun my plight, Solitary, not lonely; sated yet lost. A fickle captive in my permafrost. I spurn self-pity’s indulgent call, My wastrel's drudge to primal thrall. A millstone for necks of mortal strays Perishing slowly in diminished ways. An inversion of creation, a deviant lie, A predator's bloodlust can never comply, Rogue feeders, unbound by pack affliction. Until driven away or freed of addiction. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

AddictionImmortalityVampiresDark FantasyExistential PoetryGothic PoetryHorror PoetrySurreal PoetryGothic PoemsHorror Poem
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“Knowhere by Stewart Stafford Poleaxed by vampiric tapping— rattling timeline of a loop lapping— Hypochondriac paranoid toothache, tasting everything I see and break. Showed my tongue to an undertaker; licked his face — proved I’m no faker. A measured, grim diagnosis followed, matter from a cardiac pump hollowed. Draped loosely in a tea towel shroud, resurrected—naked, loud, and proud— Rocket to the pub for a post-wake baptism, a ploughman’s lunch with relish schism. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

PoetryExistentialismSatireDark HumorSurrealismContemporary PoetryAbsurdismGothic PoetryHorror PoetryBritish Humor
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Risk Assessor's Audit by Stewart Stafford An actuary at the butcher’s table, Serpentine watch-chain, strung as a noose, Each second, costed with surgical élan, Logging the theft in Babel columns loose. The paper catacomb lies crumpled, Its tenant, a doorway hobo in arrears, The knowing leaseholder's smile worn, Who'd changed the locks on all the years. The mutilated currency of memories, Clipped coinage set for melted dooms, Dried blood trickles in the hourglass, Turnkey guardian of vast, derelict rooms. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

DeathPoetryPhilosophicalExistentialismMetaphysicalContemporary PoetryDark PoetryGothic PoetryHorror PoetrySurreal Poetry
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Sensitive Scarred by Stewart Stafford Bizarre monolith world, We waylaid pilgrims tread In a whirligig of fair and ill Serrated lots for drawing. Consider those without armour, Senses wounded beyond measure, With struggles incomprehensible, The burdened head asphyxiates. Devoid of several layers of skin, Internal organs lacerated—daily, A ribcage so spinelessly cracked, Clarity's chains relentlessly taut. © 2025, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

TraumaPsychologicalVulnerabilityExistentialismHuman ConditionSensitivityEmotional PainDark PoetryGothic PoetryScarred Souls
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“The Dead of Winter by Stewart Stafford In truth, winter is the dead's season, Their graveyard chill touches Earth, The skeleton moon's danse macabre, As the darkened Sun heralds rebirth. Wild hunters of Christmas Eve skies, Mighty Odin or Arthur leading all, Hellhounds, fiery steeds, chase, To feast in a Valhalla or Camelot hall. Assemble at the hearth, my kindred, Share unnerving tales of gothic fright, Raised pulses as spectral guests join us, Frayed nerves spiked on this haunted night. © 2024, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

DeathWinterChristmasSupernaturalDark FantasyGhost StoriesWinter SolsticeGothic PoetryFolklore And MythologyChristmas Gothic
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“You took the part of him that still believed in something more than pain— and dressed it up in pixie dust so you could pretend you gave him peace. You don't get to twist that into legend. You don't get to wrap your hunger in fairy dust and dusk and call it rescue.”

SuicideMental HealthGrief And LossNeverlandPoetry BookGothic PoetryDark Fantasy BooksPeter Pan RetellingMental Health Books
Book:Venom In Velvet: A Dark Fantasy Novel-in-Verse
Create image

“I felt her. Before the wind shifted. Before the stars blinked. Before the Island hummed, its gold-threaded scream. I felt her like a splinter under the nail. I tasted her shadow— sawdust, regret, and something that should have stayed dead. Like a memory I'd buried deep— and pissed on for good measure.”

Mental HealthPoetry QuotesGrief And LossNeverlandPoetry BookGothic PoetryDark Fantasy BooksPeter Pan RetellingSuicideloss
Book:Venom In Velvet: A Dark Fantasy Novel-in-Verse
Create image

“Antiseptic Awakening by Stewart Stafford See the rainbow spattered With dark blood moon juice. This creeping haemorrhage, A lacerated spectrum merged. Bruised trickles not halting, Violations in crimson stealth. Impotent, alleged lifeforms, Ashen foot-dragging below. Casually surrendered hues, The arterial strain's zenith. No colour in cheek nor sky, Bleached by antiseptic snow. © 2026, Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”

ExistentialismSurrealismColorsDark AcademiaContemporary PoetryContemporary LiteraturePhilosophical PoetryGothic PoetryUrban DecayStewart Stafford
Author:Stewart Stafford
Create image

“Her breath, a perfume laced with midnight’s bloom, Her skin, a canvas brushed with lunar gloom. She lies, a mountain range of flesh and might, And I, a pilgrim, kneel to kiss her light. Her neck, a column where the ancients wrote, I trace with tongue, each vein, each whispered note.”

Gothic PoetryGothic EroticaGothic PoemsGothic Love PoemsGothic Love
Book:Gothic Poems to Love & Liberty: A Collection of Poems on Myths & Broken Hearts
Create image