Poems From Beyond the Grave: Stirrings and Inspirations From the Other Side

Hello, poetry friends! 

It's Alli here to bring you this week's Musing! This week's topic: 

Poems From Beyond the Grave: Stirrings and Inspirations From the Other Side

(Spooky, I know). 

Sylvia Plath's Grave. Photo via Tumblr.com.

If you're the poetic kids I know you are, you've probably taken a stroll in a graveyard for some macabre inspiration. Or if you're a really special kind of poetic kid, some macabre fun. This is considered weird in the real world, but hey, haters gonna hate.

via quickmeme.com

Here at Floodmark, we're all for graveyard strolls. So, if you have yet to participate in this brooding poetic tradition, you're in luck because this week's Musing has some inspiration AND a prompt to get you thinking about that mortal coil.

Speaking of mortal coils, what better way to start discussing a graveyard than with Hamlet's third soliloquy? You know what one I'm talking about---it's the really famous one all literary goons know the first 11 words to. So grab your skulls and read this to them to get yourself in a pensive mood.

Maybe you thought I was kidding when I said to read that soliloquy out loud. I wasn't. March right back up to the top of this post and read it to yourself! It's important to get the feel of the words in your mouth. This wasn't written to be read; it was written to be heard, so even if you feel like an idiot, it is 100% worth your while to give it whirl. 

...did you do it? OK, good. Onward! 

Now that we're all properly pensive and thinking about death, it's time for a mental field trip. Huzzah! We're going to take a stroll around the literary graveyard and admire some tombstones from poets and authors from the past to see what poetic words they (and in some cases, their loved ones) left for us posthumously. Let's get started!

It only seems appropriate that we visit our friend Billy Shakes first since we took at look at Hamlet as our kickoff. Here is the grave of William Shakespeare, the good ole Bard himself:

Image via flavorwire.com

His inscription reads: 

"Good Friend, for Jesus' sake forbear

To dig the dust enclosed here:

Blessed be the man that spares these stones

And curst be he that moves my bones."

Rhyming until the very end. It's appropriate. Except apparently he was obsessed with the idea of someone exhuming him, which is why he wrote that bit about cursing people who try to dig him up. Good thing he wrote it, too, because his bones would probably be in a glass case somewhere by now and his ghost would be super pissed. I feel like if anyone could actually curse you, it would be Shakespeare. Just look at Macbeth.

Next on our graveyard stroll is F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda Sayre. As you can see, written on the front of the grave is The Great Gatsby's last line: 

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

Photo via tumblr.com

Let's keep walking. The next grave we'll come upon is that of John Keats, a Romantic poet who died young from tuberculosis. His tombstone has a beautiful inscription on it, one that he chose himself before his death.

It reads: "Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water"

Image via tumblr.com

Small detour: If you have yet to see the movie Bright Star and bawl your eyes out, DO IT. Bright Star is an absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking re-telling of John Keats's life and romance with his lover Fanny Brawn. It's heavy, but there is power there. It inspired me to write a poem or two, perhaps it will do the same for you. Here is a reading of "Ode to a Nightingale" from the movie that I absolutely adore to accompany Keats's tombstone. 

Beautiful, right? There are other readings by Ben Whishaw, the actor who plays John Keats in the movie, and all of them are as gorgeous as this one and worth a listen. You can find them on Youtube.

You may recognize this grave from the beginning of the post. This headstone belongs to Sylvia Plath. It may be hard to see the inscription on her tombstone in this photo, but it reads:

"Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted."

Image via tumblr.com

The inscription was chosen for her by her ex-husband, the poet Ted Hughes. There was a lot of controversy surrounding her headstone. Many of her fans attempted to scratch off "Hughes" from her last name, claiming that Hughes destroyed her. It has been removed, cleaned, and reset many times.

If you'll turn around, you will see the grave of Dorothy Parker. The first half of her memorial headstone reads:

"Here lies the ashes of Dorothy Parker

Humorist, Writer, Critic

Defender of Human and Civil Rights

For her epitaph she suggested

'Excuse my dust.'"

Image via tumblr.com

Her dark humor deserves at least a small, bittersweet smile. I advise you to check out this page for more information about Dorothy Parker and her work. It will get you started, at least.


Let's keep walking though, we have several more to go before we can sit and start writing. Here is the grave of D.H. Lawrence. His epitaph, which you can see on his family headstone, is at the bottom.

 It reads: "Unconquered."

Image via flavorwire.com

If you admire D.H. Lawrence's choice of words for his tombstone, there are over 50 examples of his poetry on The Poetry Foundation's website. Click here if you'd like to browse them or learn more about him.

If you walk a few paces farther, you'll find the memorial plaque of Virginia Woolf. Her inscription is difficult to make out in this photograph, but it reads:

"Death is the enemy. Against you I will fling myself, unvanquished and unyielding o Death! 

The waves broke on the shore."

Image via flavorwire.com

This quote is from Woolf's novel The Waves. It was chosen by her husband and is in their backyard. Below is the opening sequence from the movie The Hours. It features a reading of Virginia Woolf's handwritten suicide note to her husband. It is hauntingly intimate, and worth a listen.

If you are interested in the life of Virginia Woolf, The Hours might be an interesting place to start, though it does not focus on her life exclusively. It's a hard movie to explain, but it's on Netflix if you want to give it a chance and watch it. 

Let's keep walking. Just past Virginia Woolf's memorial plaque, you'll find Robert Frost's resting place. His inscription is hard to see since it's all the way at the top, but it reads:

"I had a lover's quarrel with the world." 

Image via flavorwire.com

The quote is a line from his poem "The Lesson For Today". Here are the last two stanzas of the poem:

If you're interested in reading the whole poem, follow this link.


If you turn the corner, the first grave in the next row belongs to Charles Bukowski. At first glance, his inscription is pretty depressing.

It reads: "Don't try."

Image via flavorwire.com

However, according to the flavorwire.com, it's not as depressing as it seems. Here is the explanation:

Bukowski explained the phrase in a 1963 letter to John William Corrington, writing “Somebody at one of these places … asked me: ‘What do you do? How do you write, create?’ You don’t, I told them. You don’t try. That’s very important: ‘not’ to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It’s like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it.”

If you're unfamiliar with Charles Bukowski's work, here are some poems to get you started. There are many more than are featured on The Poetry Foundation, though. Browse the web and you will find a lot of different examples. I especially like his short story, The Most Beautiful Woman in Town.

Keep walking; we're almost there. Farther down the row, you'll find Emily Dickinson.

Her inscription reads: "Called Back".

Photo via flavorwire.com

"Called Back" is an excerpt from her last known letter. Here is what Emily Dickinson had to say about Death:

We'll end there for today. The sun is sinking in the west in our literary graveyard, and it's time to head inside to write. Here are some prompts to try, in light of all the inspiration above:

1. To begin organizing your thoughts, freewrite on whatever stuck with you from this post, or on the idea of graveyards and death in general. Write down the lines that are echoing in your head, or words that caught your attention.

2. Freewrite on your favorite grave out of the ones featured above. What struck you? What haunts you? What followed you after you strolled out of our metaphorical graveyard? Write down all your thoughts. Afterwards, go and read some work by the poet you chose. Can you find the quality that haunts you in their work? Do you think their epitaph is fitting? Could you have chosen a better one?

3. Freewrite on the idea of your own mortality. Re-read Hamlet's Third Soliloquy, or any of the featured work in this blog post to find the threads you need. What would your epitaph read? Why? Where would you like to be buried? Would you like a family tombstone, like Frost and Lawrence? Would you like to be cremated like Dorothy Parker? Write about your own death, and what you will leave behind.

4. Write three poems, or whichever poetry prompt really captures your attention:

• Write a monologue in whatever form you would like about graveyards and death. Pull ideas, phrases, and words from Freewrite #1. 
• Write a poem about your own grave and what you want to leave behind. You could also write a poem about what you wish to leave behind, and what you fear you will only leave behind.  Mine Freewrite #2 and #3 for material.
• Write a poem about death. It can be about your own death, your feelings on death, the death of a loved one, or the death of a favorite poet. Feel free to be as specific or as large as you'd like, just say something about death. Pull from all three of your freewriting exercises for material and ideas. 

If you are interested in the freewriting process, or would like to know how it works, check out this handy post with the history and a flow chart explaining how to use it in your writing practice.

Thank you for taking a walk with me. If you enjoyed this metaphorical stroll, considering looking up your local graveyard and taking another walk. It's not the easiest walk to take, but I think it's one that all poets can benefit from. Death has been an obsession of many a poet for as long as poets have existed. Join the long tradition and put your own words on the page about it.

I hope you enjoyed this week's Musing. Please feel free to comment on this post with your thoughts, comments, concerns, or poetry you've written from our prompts. We love to hear from you! Our community of poets will gladly provide feedback if you desire it. 

Also, comment below with your poems or shoot us an email with your poems based on this prompt and you might just end up in our Featured Friday section this month! Let us know it was this post that inspired you when you email. You can find all our contact info on this page. 

We'll be back next week with another Musing! In the meantime, feel free to click around our page for more inspiration, poetry, musings, hilarity, and tons of other good stuff. I bid thee Adieu!