Vampire Poetry
Vampire poetry is very common among literature, especially literature of the nineteenth century. Classic vampire poetry is very well known amongst scholars and avid literature admirers. Vampire poetry highly influenced other types of media, such as vampire novels and films on vampires. Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, was written, and gave way to a world of influential literature based on tales of vampires. Poets began adopting dark themes, dabbling on vampire tales in their poetry, for the 18th and 19th centuries were a time of immense turmoil. Victorian Britain society was plagued with diseases like tuberculosis, and members of society were undergoing gloomy times. Vampire poems reflected these sentiments and mirrored the darkness of the society through images of blood-thirsty vampires.
Here is one of the oldest published vampire poems:
Heinrich August Ossenfelder : Der Vampir (1748)
My dear young maiden clingeth
Unbending. fast and firm
To all the long-held teaching
Of a mother ever true;
As in vampires unmortal
Folk on the Theyse's portal
Heyduck-like do believe.
But my Christine thou dost dally,
And wilt my loving parry
Till I myself avenging
To a vampire's health a-drinking
Him toast in pale tockay.
And as softly thou art sleeping
To thee shall I come creeping
And thy life's blood drain away.
And so shalt thou be trembling
For thus shall I be kissing
And death's threshold thou' it be crossing
With fear, in my cold arms.
And last shall I thee question
Compared to such instruction
What are a mother's charms?