Poets’ Halloween Party…
A while ago, when ONS was still fairly new and shiny, I wrote a post asking you which poets (dead or alive) you’d invite to tea. Not too many of you answered (I still want to know!!), so I thought I’d try again, with a twist… which poets (dead or alive) would you invite to your ultimate Halloween Party, and why? What would they dress up as? Where would you hold your Halloween bash, and what would the evening consist of?? A back-to-back Hammer House of Horror movie-screening? A night of trick-or-treating? You tell me! If enough of you respond, there may even be a small prize for the best poetic Halloween vision… so get commenting!
I reckon my Halloween Party guestlist would include… WB Yeats, for starters. Fascinated by all things Occult, I reckon WBY would show up dressed as some kind of high Pagan priest and spend the evening regailing everyone with Samhain myths and legends. I’d also invite William Blake… he was also seriously interested in spirits and spiritualism and would no doubt dress up as something mythical and religious - hopefully Satan! I reckon he and WBY could have some good debates…
Philip Larkin, a sceptic in all things, could also be there, for balance. He’d probably get riotously drunk and crabby and refuse to dress up. That, or he’d just turn down my invitation!
I’d invite Margaret Atwood (which I could do because I’ve met her before! She’s absolutely tiny and has hair like a dandelion clock)… she’d bring tiny, hollowed-out pomegranate lanterns and dress up as Persephone, and Philip Larkin would have to admit she was awesome despite finding her slightly ridiculous. Emily Bronte could also come along (but only if she agreed to bring Bramwell, with whom I am unhealthily obsessed and intend to marry in the afterlife) - she’d probably be very pious and superstitious, but I reckon after a couple of drinks she’d dress up in furry cat ears and party along with everyone else! Liz Lochhead (who also came to my tea party) would be invited back, and I think she’d dress up either as Mary Queen of Scots with her head chopped off (yes, I went there) or the Bride of Frankenstein. She’d sit with Emily Bronte and ply her with drink until they ended up dancing on the tables…
I’d hold my Halloween party at Frankensteins, Edinburgh (I think Liz Lochhead would approve of all the Mary Shelley references), and we’d spend the night listening to Michael Jackon’s Thriller and Bobby Boris Pickett & The Crypt Kicker Five. We’d have a costume contest, dook for apples, eat pumpkin cobbler and drink absinthe (provided by Bramwell, probably!) - the proper stuff with wormwood in it. Then I reckon WB Yeats, William Blake and Margaret Atwood would perform some kind of spooky Samhain ritual… at which point Philip Larkin would storm out.
Check out my Poets’ Halloween Party wishlist!
OK so now you’ve heard mine… tell me about YOUR Poetic Halloween Party!
Tags: advice for young writers, poets halloween party, publishing, resources for young writers, young poets
October 30th, 2008 at 11:15 am
hmmmmm…
- I’d have to invite Aleister Crowley because:
a) he’s Aleister Crowley, nuff said
b) he and Yeats hates each other’s guts and so they’d be whipping out their magic wands and zapping each other the whole night through and
c) he was an absolutely hopeless poet, and so would boost the egos of all the other poets there
- Hayley Shields should be there, for Fall is nothing else
- I’d like to see Coleridge in the corner, smoking his opium, looking pale and wan and congratulating himself for having written that Gothic master piece Rime Of The Ancient Mariner
- Peter Steele has written some of the most Gothic verses ever set on paper and his famous ‘asset’ would provide hours of delight to the ladies in attendance
- and Ted Hughes could make the tea….
October 30th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I think I’d invite Edgar Allan Poe for his spooky poetry and prose and Oscar Wilde for some gaiety!
October 30th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
My ideal Halloween party would contain the following activities:
Apple bobbing with Sylvia Plath
Dividing the trick or treat stash with Denise Levertov
Stirring mulled wine with two Emilys - Dickinson and Bronte
Setting up the Ouija board with TS Eliot, who thoughtfully brought me lilacs
Carving a pumpkin with Christopher Marlowe and Ezra Pound
Cooking spaghetti for witches hair with Diane Di Prima
Set up monster traps with Anne Carson
Write spooky riddles with Ivy Alvarez
Build a bonfire with Gertrude Stein
And of course, Oscar Wilde would watch over the proceedings with an amused air though not partaking in anything in particular.
It would take place behind the walls of Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, so the ghosts of Colette, Sarah Bernhardt and Jim Morrison could come as well. Soundtrack for the evening would alternate between Elgar, Sneaky Sound System and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Actually, forget Halloween - this might be my next birthday party!!
(thanks Claire, this was fun!)
October 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
What a brilliant idea! My Halloween party guest list would include the man everyone loves to hate - Ezra Pound. He would be dressed as a Tunisian Prince, the same costume he wore to the Halloween party where he first met Hilda Doolittle. He would bring all his friends, uninvited of course, (T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, William Carlos Williams) and would probably pass around information about his latest and greatest literary movement. Everyone would pretend to care, but mostly ignore him. Except for me. I would be flirtatious, but only when Hilda wasn’t looking.
Of course Hilda is invited! She would be dressed as something fantastical - a faerie or dryad. There would be a lot of Ezra gossiping going on between she and I. Misery loves company.
Speaking of misery, Sylvia Plath would show up looking beautifully tragic. A corpse bride, perhaps? Sunken eyes in dark makeup, matted hair, wispy white dress. Ezra would no doubt work his charm, but Sylvia knows his wicked way. She would join Hilda and I for a game of pin the hatchet on Lizzie Borden.
And how can I forget Percy Shelley? The dark romantic poet who shares my birth month and day! Yes, we share a special bond. He would come as frumpy, high-brow vampire, sip red wine all night, and only pick at the vegetable tray.
And last, but certainly not least, Francesca Lia Block would arrive in all her winged goddess splendor. A queen in a blood-red Renaissance gown, flowing curls, and the most exquisite pair of angel wings.
Within the walls of a Queen Anne Victorian masterpiece, my poet friends and I would enjoy a night of dancing underneath twinkle lights, poetry readings, ghost stories, hide and seek, and throwing apples at Ezra. Maybe we’d all get around to playing Rock Band. Can you imagine? ;)
October 30th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
you’d have to fight me for margaret atwood!
who else? i like the sound of hd but as cassandra’s beat me to it, then it’ll be anne sexton for definite, mina loy maybe, watch the pair of them spark of each other. i dig up sappho for a bit of exotic undead proper old school halloween vibe. and elizabeth barret browning for a chat. meg bateman so as there’d be someone scottish and alive. they don’t have to dress as anything, just having them there would be enough!
so my house is full of women poets for halloween? what does that say? probably enough!
so my token bloke would have to be kenneth white because he’s such a gent. again he gets to come as himself, not least because i never get a proper chance for a blether
what would we do? my time with big ass parties is well over so, given it’s halloween, i’d cast a spell so that i could smoke and drink again, just for a night, then chill out and listen to the banter
October 30th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Now big ass parties could mean so many things…
x
October 30th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
yes. it could ; )
October 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Not a great one for all this Halloween malarkey. It wasn’t very big when I grew up and I’ve never really gotten into the spirit (pun intended). Tell Larkin he can come over to my place when he gets bored with you lot.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:51 am
Not for Halloween, which I don’t do, but for tea, but only if I could substitute a fifth of Jack Daniels, I’d love to sit round a wood fire with Gary Snyder, Basho, Han Shan, August Kleinzahler, Denise Levertov, and some of my current poet friends. I’d invite Emily Dickinson, but I’m not sure she’d accept, and Kenneth White is away at Swiss’s place, but I’d ask him anyway. And when the bottle ran out, as it would, we’d send Billy Collins out to get another.
October 31st, 2008 at 11:59 am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onOne Night Stanzas » Blog Archive » Poetsâ?? Halloween Partyâ?¦Here’s a quick excerptMy Halloween party guest list would include the man everyone loves to hate - Ezra Pound. He would be dressed as a Tunisian Prince, the same costume he wore to the Halloween party where he first met Hilda Doolittle. … [...]
October 31st, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Simon — I love the thought of Crowley and Yeats having a fight… but who do you think would win??
Katja — I can’t believe I didn’t think of Poe myself, he’s such a good Halloween choice! A Halloween tea party with Poe and Wilde would be amazing!
Phillipa — definitely a cool location for any Halloween party, but particularly a dead-or-alive fantasy one! And I ever-so-nearly invited Diane Di Prima to mine. She might get an invite after all… but I daresay she’d be far too busy dancing the night away in the cemetery with you!
Cassandra — If you have Shelley, surely Byron would want to gatecrash, too? Then it would be a whole different kind of party… particularly with all those tragic, vulnerable women poets there too!
Swiss — I bet you could still throw a big-ass party with the best of them (and Rachel, you may read into that whatever you wish…!!)
Jim — To be honest, I’m sure Larkin would prefer a quiet pint with you to a night of Halloween nuttiness with me!
Colin — Snyder/Levertov is a brilliant cocktail… + Billy Collins as a skivvy? Perfect!
Thanks for all your Halloween Party ideas, guys! Keep ‘em coming!
October 31st, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Of course I would invite Poe having been a fan of him since my teenage angsty goth days! And I would also invite H.P Lovecraft for some tales of the weird. I think Poe and Lovecraft would get on like a house on fire. Then maybe I would Emily Dickinson because she would also get on with Lovecraft I think. Maybe I would set them up on a blind date!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
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