Monday, October 7, 2013

The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: Nightmares from Jack Prelutsky and Arnold Lobel



'The Headless Horseman rides tonight
upon his fateful trip. 
With silvery scythe of steely death 
held fast in bony grip, 
he sweeps it swiftly forth and back 
as over the Earth he glides. 
And none in the world is safe tonight 
for the Headless Horseman rides.' 




The above quote is from the book The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight: More Poems to Trouble Your Sleep by Jack Prelutsky with art by Arnold Lobel. You may recognize the style of Mr. Lobel's work. He is best known for his children's books Frog and Toad and Fables.  His masterful artwork, which accompanies Mr. Prelutsky's poems, rank alongside Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as the most horrifying literary moment of my childhood. 




The Headless Horseman Rides Tonight  is a sequel to Nightmares:Poems to Trouble Your Sleep.  Both books were published in the mid-1970's.  The poems contained within are all formatted as simple rhymes for children but all deal with supernatural subject matter. The above image concerns the inhabitants of  a sinister Haunted House.  


'Upon your bed you sleep in pain,
For nightmares swirl within your brain.
You waken with a fearful start
As horror grips your heart.
You sense a presence standing there,
And all at once it meets your stare,
A zombie waits within your room,
And with it dwells your doom.'


The above excerpt and drawings are from the poem Zombie.  For my money, it is the best of the bunch and made me fear the living dead long before I watched the films of George Romero. But I'll let you decide the most terrifying for yourself, dear reader.  Check out the links below to learn more! 

Happy Halloween, everybody.  

Recommended links: 






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