Blog #14: Darkly Gothic Poem Text and Analysis

"The Blackest Gift"

It is a night of darkness, a song of ethereal pain,

wolves vent their loneliness. The immortal one

awakes.

Curling, icy wisps of death shrouds her pale form,

an everlasting desire.

Her silken hair cascades over

translucent ivory shoulders, and her

full scarlet lips part slightly, to taste the

blood streaming from the

pale flesh beneath

her.

Now a night of taking,

I remember her.

Explanation:

Diction such as "darkness" of the night and "ethereal pain" of the song helps to extend the connotations of the words to the vampiress as they are used as pathetic fallacy to attribute the vampirism curse to being such exquisite pain that it seems too perfect for this world, to be utterly beautiful, but also a monster. The idea of an eternity of suffering is conveyed through words such as "loneliness", "immortal", and “everlasting”. I chose to implement the word “taking” in order to assert that the vampiress is incapable of giving love and life, and therefore can only take it from mortal men.

My intention was to convey an ironic and forlorn tone through the eternal curse of vampirism as something that simultaneously helps and hurts the vampiress. She is undeniably beautiful, yet she can tear men apart.

A haunting, alluring, and lethal mood is conveyed through the provocative imagery of the vampiress’s appearance and her desire for men’s blood overtakes her equal desire for love, which is seemingly fading as a result of her blood lust. The last line of the poem ("I remember her") captures the nostalgia that her victim experiences as he falls under her allure.

Binary opposites are evident in the “silken” (soft or lustrous like silk) and delicate appearance of the vampire in contrast to her deadly nature. In addition there is the allure of her beauty and ability to seduce men contrasting her loneliness. Phrases such as “silken hair cascades”, “translucent ivory shoulder, and “full scarlet lips” reinforce her beauty. The title also contains binary opposition as it captures the contradictory ideas of exquisite or "ethereal" pain. The vampirism is the "blackest gift", an ill-fated offering from the universe.