The Banshee

[MIKE444]

It was late one night while walking home,
Through the graveyard, I decided to roam.
The cemetery gates were left ajar
Thus decreasing my journey by far.

The winter fog surrounded me, blocking out my sight,
I tried to peer through its blinding veil for the moon shed little light.
But the mist was in my eyes and everything was a blur,
In this forlorn deathly place, nothing seemed to stir.

Then something stirred my senses, a movement just ahead.
It sent a tremble up my spine, my nerves began to shred.
But as I turned to walk away a voice called out to me,
And there she was as large as life, the ghostly banshee.

She looked at me as I stood there, her eyes as dead as stone.
Then she wailed her haunting cry, which chilled me to the bone.
Her long grey hair was blowing lightly in the breeze.
Then she came towards me from out among the trees.

The thoughts of childhood stories came flooding through my mind.
Those fireside tales of phantoms, and demons of her kind.
I tried to run but could not move, my brain began to scream.
I tried to tell my terrified mind that this was just a dream.

The banshee stood before me in all her deathly glow,
The bony hands, the hollow mouth, her skin as white as snow.
“What do you want?” I asked of her, “Your soul” she answered back.
As I stood there rooted to the spot, the sweat poured down my back.

Then suddenly from just behind a voice began to talk.
And then he appeared, the parish priest, out for his midnight walk..
“Be gone you evil witch” he said "back to the devils side".
He held his bible out at her, “Be gone” again he cried.

With that, she turned and began to glide away among the mist.
As the parish priest stood shouting, and brandishing his fist.
"Come" he said, "let us leave this place to the slumber of the dead".
"For a graveyard after twelve o’clock is not a place to tread".

[Pendragon]

Not bad, would probably been better without rhymes. With the rhymes it sounds too much like an older poem I've read, especially with the optune appearence of the parish priest. Do you know much about Banshee legends?

[dibyendra]

Quite interesting MIKE! :thumbs_up

Last two lines conclude this poem very well :


"Come" he said, "let us leave this place to the slumber of the dead".
"For a graveyard after twelve o’clock is not a place to tread".

And yes, I agree with Pen, it would have been better if you could have written without making a rhyme.

[ampoule]

Ooo, I liked the eeriness of this. I rather liked the rhyme but with that I like a meter that reads more easily. And I agree with the priest. You should not be out there at midnight! ;)

[AuntShecky]

Hmm.
We seldom get to see a narrative poem or a ballad, so your attempt to write one is welcome.

Incidentally, do you know the origin of the word "banshee"
Originally it meant merely "a woman of the Sheé," not necessarily a witch or a hag. Popular culture throughout the centuries has established the word as such with her
bone-chilling wails and the cliché, "screaming like a banshee."

[MIKE444]

Hi guys,
I thank you all for your views.
Being new to the world of poetry I understand little about it and your advice is very welcome.
In Irish folklore, the Banshee or Bean Sidhe (woman of the hills) is a spirit or fairy who presage a death by wailing.

[Pendragon]

Hi guys,
I thank you all for your views.
Being new to the world of poetry I understand little about it and your advice is very welcome.
In Irish folklore, the Banshee or Bean Sidhe (woman of the hills) is a spirit or fairy who presage a death by wailing.Quite right. You do know. I wondered about that. See, the Banshee haunts a family in particular, you wouldn't likely run into her in a graveyard unless you were of that family and the next to die... Which, if you think about that, makes your poem all the more spooky! That Banshee had to be after you or the Parish Priest, neither of whom should have been in a graveyard after midnight!

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l108/AbsalomKane/Ghost.gif