Nightmares

13 Must-Read Poems about Nightmares

Poems about nightmares take us into the haunting realm of dream space,
offering a chilling thrill and an understanding of the subconscious human experience.

These verses employ unsettling imagery, painting uncanny landscapes and scenarios like apocalyptic visions, ghostly encounters, eerie phenomena, monstrous beings, etc. These scenes often do not label themselves as nightmares, thus blurring the lines between reality and imagination while leaving the readers aghast.

Interestingly, this poetry presents the intricate relationship between the human psyche and nightmares. They reflect on how nightmares seep into our waking lives, impacting our mental and emotional state. Simultaneously, they illustrate how real-life traumas get established in the psyche, seated in the fabric of our dreams, representing themselves in terrifying visions that linger long after we arouse. Withal, these verses also indicate psychological issues such as sleep paralysis resonating with contemporary times.

Poems about Nightmares Visual Representation

Poem Explorer Poetry Archives

#1

Nationality: American

Theme: Death

Emotion: Fear

Topics:

89

93

Darkness, Memories, Memory, Night

Genre: Horror

"> 93/100

The House of Ghosts

by Margaret Widdemer

‘The House of Ghosts’ by Margaret Widdemer describes a speaker’s nightmare in which she fears not being remembered by her family members.

In her nightmare, the speaker visits a 'House of Ghosts' and sees her dead family members. It looks warm from the outside, reminding the speaker of the love she received once from her loved ones there. However, the poem turns eerie as the house 'is not there by day.' At night, the speaker's mother, father, and hound don't respond to her voice and recognize her because she was a child when they died, and now she is changed. It ends on a creepy note as the speaker flies the house after her childhood version 'stares aghast' at her.

The House of Ghosts was bright within,

Aglow and warm and gay,

A place my own once loved me in,

That is not there by day:

#2

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Nationality:

65

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50

Emotions:

67

75

65

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65

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"> 90/100

Rhapsody on a Windy Night

by T.S. Eliot

‘Rhapsody on a Windy Night,’ with its spooky mood and setting, captures the tortured and fragmented human psyche amidst a destructed world.

It seems as if the speaker is describing a nightmare as he explains the eerie events of his excursion at night - from midnight to four in the morning. The street lamp converses with him in the dead of the night, telling eerie things about the cat and a woman. He also encounters a 'crowd of twisted things,' accentuating the poem's spooky atmosphere. Furthermore, the ritualistic beginning of each stanza with time, i.e., one hour more of the preceding stanza, adds to the nightmarish aura of the poem.

Twelve o'clock.

Along the reaches of the street

Held in a lunar synthesis,

Whispering lunar incantations

#3

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Topic:

88

"> 88/100

Dream-Land

by Edgar Allan Poe

‘Dream-Land’ by Edgar Allan Poe presents a traveler’s experiences in an eerie and desolate landscape inhabited by dark angels.

The 'dream-land' seems to emanate from a nightmare as it isn't a whimsical landscape; instead, it is spooky, inhabited by ghosts and 'ill angels.' It is ruled by an Eidolon, which in ancient Greek mythology is a phantom in human form or the spirit of a living or dead person. Eidolon, named 'NIGHT,' symbolizes its dark and satanic nature. The NIGHT's land is so haunting that the men who pass through it 'dare not openly view it.' Nevertheless, the terrifying ruler also forbids 'The uplifting of the fringed lid.'

By a route obscure and lonely,

Haunted by ill angels only,

Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,

On a black throne reigns upright,

#4

Nationality: American

Theme: Nature

Emotion: Depression

Topics:

85

Moon, Night, Peace, Rivers, Sorrow

Genres:

57

"> 85/100

The Haunted Palace

by Edgar Allan Poe

‘The Haunted Palace’ by Edgar Allan Poe describes, through the metaphor of a palace, the physical effects of depression on the human mind.

The poem narrates a tale of a supernatural palace, which is likely the human mind. It takes an eerie turn in the last two stanzas as 'evil things' attack the monarch of the palace with 'sorrow.' The attack on the monarch can be interpreted as some disturbing incident that affected the psyche negatively. The last stanza describing the palace seems like a nightmare or the disturbed human psyche that breeds hallucinations and nightmares. Psychoanalytically, the poem can be interpreted as presenting the relationship between disturbing incidents and nightmares.

In the greenest of our valleys

By good angels tenanted,

Once a fair and stately palace—

Radiant palace—reared its head.

#5

Nationality: English

Themes: Death, Dreams, Nature, Spirituality

Emotions: Anxiety, Fear, Hopelessness, Resilience, Terror

Topics:

82

Darkness, Isolation, Night, Storm, Time

Form: Quatrain

Genre: Gothic

"> 82/100

Spellbound

by Emily Brontë

In ‘Spellbound,’ Emily Brontë brings her readers into a terrifying landscape, trapping them with the speaker.

The speaker describes a scenario that seems like a nightmare. She is trapped in a haunting landscape with cold, wild winds, giant trees, storms, clouds, etc. The atmosphere appears blurry and eerie, and the speaker can't move as she is under a 'tyrant spell' or spooky magic. Lacking much context, the poem binds the readers in its nightmare, making them guess various interpretations. To modern readers, the poem can indicate a description of sleep paralysis as one can't move despite being terrified by uncanny nightmares.

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

#6

80

"> 80/100

Dream Song 29

by John Berryman

‘Dream Song 29’ by John Berryman, seeming like a nightmare, is a reality-bending exploration of Henry’s troubled mind.

Henry struggles with guilt and depression due to an incident that makes him believe that he is a murderer. The incident has significantly impacted his psyche as he constantly lives in nightmares of being a killer. He often checks that nobody is missing, making sure that he has not killed anyone, as his hallucinations get triggered by small things like a cough or odor. The uncanny presentation of Henry's actions in the poem portrays how real-life incidents manifest like nightmares in the psyche.

There sat down, once, a thing on Henry's heart só heavy, if he had a hundred years & more, & weeping, sleepless, in all them time Henry could not make good.

#7

Nationality: English

Themes: Death, Dreams

Emotions: Grief, Hopelessness

Topics:

78

Death of a Loved One, Loss, Night

"> 78/100

On the Threshold

by Amy Levy

‘On the Threshold’ by Amy Levy describes the speaker’s feelings of loss and helplessness after dreaming of the death of someone near to her.

The speaker describes her nightmare to the addressee, likely convincing him to take the next step in their relationship. In her nightmare, she witnesses the death of the addressee and his close ones mourning him. However, for the speaker, more haunting than death was that she couldn't go closer, touch, or kiss him because she 'had no part nor lot in' him as their relationship was not intimate enough. She lost him while the barriers between them stood robust.

O God, my dream! I dreamed that you were dead;

Your mother hung above the couch and wept

Whereon you lay all white, and garlanded

With blooms of waxen whiteness. I had crept

#8

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72

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Emotions:

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98

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"> 76/100

Darkness

by Lord Byron

‘Darkness’ by Lord Byron is a foreboding poem that predicts haunting consequences for humanity in the rapidly changing modern world.

The poem presents an apocalyptic nightmare where the sun is 'extinguished,' leaving the world in darkness. The houses are set on fire on an icy earth while nature, including rivers and oceans, stays still. Barbarity and death pervade this nightmare as men eat dead birds while dogs eat their masters amidst the famine. Everyone, including the kings, suffers the calamity as only the darkness - 'was the Universe,' making the world 'A lump of death.'

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars

Did wander darkling in the eternal space,

Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

#9

Nationality: American

Themes: Death, Identity, New Life, Relationships

Emotions: Anger, Frustration, Grief, Pain, Sadness

Topics:

70

93

Childhood, Death of a Loved One, Fathers and Sons, Hospital, Illness

Form: Free Verse

"> 70/100

Nightmare Begins Responsibility

by Michael S. Harper

In ‘Nightmare Begins Responsibility,’ Michael S. Harper shares the heartbreaking experience of losing his two sons at the time of birth.

The speaker feels helpless as he is unable to do anything for his newborn children while the doctors operate on them. He can only watch doctors doing things with his children while battling his own distrust of the doctors. Nevertheless, he accepts the doctor's painstaking efforts while expressing how this heartbreaking experience and guilt will haunt his psyche for the rest of his life like a nightmare.

I place these numbed wrists to the pane

watching white uniforms whisk over

him in the tube-kept

prison

#10

Nationality: English

Emotion: Fear

Topics:

54

94

67

Mythology, Power, Sea

Form: Sonnet

"> 67/100

The Kraken

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

‘The Kraken’ by Tennyson delves into the mysterious story of an ancient sea monster, predicting his rise to the sea’s surface only to die.

Tennyson refers to the mythical sea monster found in folktales. The Kraken is considered a nightmare for the sailors as it can drag ships to the ocean's depths. In this poem, Kraken is in a deep sleep at the bottom of the sea while the plants and creatures dwell upon it. The beast will wake up only to die on the surface when the sea floor heats up.

Below the thunders of the upper deep,

Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,

His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep

The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee

#11

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Nationality:

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Themes:

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55

Emotions:

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49

Topics:

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55

53

Overcoming Adversity

57

Form:

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"> 53/100

The Triumph of Life

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

In ‘The Triumph of life,’ Shelley’s vivid imagery paints the beauty of dawn and the mysterious trance that envelops the speaker.

'The Triumph of Life' is like a waking nightmare, with its bewildering and chaotic scenes. The poem plunges readers into a surreal world where reality and dreams blur. This nightmarish quality is enhanced by the grotesque and distorted imagery, as well as the sense of impending doom that permeates the narrative. The poem's relentless descent into a nightmarish scenario reflects the uncertainty and anxiety of life's journey.

Swift as a spirit hastening to his task

Of glory & of good, the Sun sprang forth

Rejoicing in his splendour, & the mask

Of darkness fell from the awakened Earth.

#12

Amethyst Beads

by Eavan Boland

‘Amethyst Beads’ by Eavan Boland alludes to Greek mythology and the suffering of a child, Persephone, after she was separated from her mother, Demeter.

A child crying out in her sleep

Wait for me. Don’t leave me here.

Who will never remember this.

Who will never remember this.

#13

Gathering the Bones Together

by Gregory Orr

The poem ‘Gathering the Bones Together’ describes the grief and trauma that Gregory Orr had to go through after accidentally killing his younger brother.

When all the rooms of the house

fill with smoke, it’s not enough

to say an angel is sleeping on the chimney.

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