In a night of storms and darkness
in the summer that never was
a Lord set in motion a horror
which lives in us forevermore
Byron read a poem of fright
and his French was quite a delight
as he finished the scary night
did the listeners words have might
Tell us a story most singular, Lord said
perhaps about a creature that was dead
did it's breath come out like lead
with what was this monster fed
The months of that summer passed
in the summer that never was
the words of that summer are history
and will live with us forevermore
The summer was filled with debauchery
smothered in love, lust and treachery
From Lord and Clare was a child begot
On paper two others conceived a plot
Shelly gave rise to a monstrous assembly
featured in uncounted stories as deadly
Polidori thought of an aristocrat that was dead
progenitor to Dracula and other modern undead
From that night of storms and darkness
in the summer that never was
two pillars of horror were born
to scare and thrill us forevermore
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Darla, at least you gave enough information in the poem to make it easy to answer my questions ….and more! a very interesting story indeed. I had to do some research and found on Wikipedia: “The Villa Diodati is a mansion in the village of Cologny near Lake Geneva in Switzerland, notable because Lord Byron rented it and stayed there with John Polidori in the summer of 1816. Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley, who had rented a house nearby, were frequent visitors. Because of poor weather, in June 1816 the group famously spent three days together inside the house creating stories to tell each other, two of which were developed into landmark works of the Gothic horror genre: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Vampyre, the first modern vampire story, by Polidori.” I also found a record of a dark and rainy and cool summer in much of the world that year, due to a volcanic eruption the year before. my favorite lines: “Tell us a story most singular, Lord said perhaps about a creature that was dead did it's breath come out like lead with what was this monster fed” I’ll send the poem to my April showcase. :) bri