].

{IGHTMARES
POEMS TO TROUBLE YOUR SLEEP

UyJACK PRELUTSI(Y
illustrated

byARNOLD LOBEL

GREENWI f,LOW BOOKS

A Division of \rilliam Mor.ow & Compatry, Inc., New York

CONTENTS
House
The Will o' the rJTisp
The Haunted

TheBogeyman
The

Vampire

The Dragon of

'

10

12
14

Death

TheTroll

20

Witch

22

The

18

Ogre 24
The Werewolf 27
'fhe

The

rJTizard

TheGhoul

2a
12

The Dance of the Thirteen Skeletons

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

n a hilltop bleak and bate
looms the castle of desPair,
only phantoms linger thete
within its dismal walls.
Through the dark they're creePing, ctawling,

ftenzied futies battling, brawling,

sprawling, calling, caterwauling
thtough the dusky halls.
Filmy visions, ever focking,
dart through chambers, crudely mocking,
rudely rapping, taPPing, knocking
on the ctumbling doors.
Tortured spirits whine and wail,
they grope and grasp, they wildly flail,
their hollow voices rasP and rail
beneath the moldeting floors.

Shadows lrom the dim heteafter

hang from evety creaking rafter,

laughing disernbodied laughter
in theit ghosdy glee.

of evanescent hatter
whisper theit uneathly patter,
rattle chains that chill aod shatter
on their sPectral sptee
Shades

Revenants otr misty perches

taunt the ghost that luuges, luches

as it despetately searches
for its vanished head.
Shapeless wraiths devoid of feeliog
hovet blindly by the ceiling
tanting, chanting, shrieking, squealing
promises of &ead.

In the cornets, eyes ate gleabidg,

everywhere ate nightmares stteaming,
diabolic hortols screaming
in the sombrous air.
So shun this place whete sPecteis soaf,it's you and you the/te waiting for
to hauot your souls fotevermole
in their castle of despait.

THE WILL O' THE WISP

are lost in the desolate forest

where the stars give a piciful light,
but the faraway glow of the will o' the wisp
ofiers hope in the menacing night.

\Zou

It

is lonely aod cold in the forest

and you shiver with fea! in the damP,

as you follow tbe way of the will o tbewisp
and the dance o{ its dickering lamp.

But know as you trudge thlough the forest

toward that glisreting torch in tbegloom
that the eerie allure of the will o' the v.isP
summons you down to yoru doon

It will

lead you asray in the forest

over ways never traveled before.

ever you follow the will o' the wisp
you'll never be seeo anymore.

If

10

THE BOGEYMAN

1n lhe desolate deprhs of a perilous place

wirh a snarl on his face.

Never dare, never dare to apptoach his dark lair
for he's waiting , . . just waiting . . . to get you,
rhe bogeyman lurks.

He skulks in the shadows, relentless and wild

in his search fora render, delectable child.
Vith his sreely sharp claws and his slavering jaws
oh he's waiting. . . just waiting . . . to get you.

Many have entered his dreary domain

bur nor even one has been heard from again.
They no doubt made a feast fot the butcheting beast
and he's waiting . . . just waiting . . . to get you.

In that sulphurous, sunless and sinister place

he'll ciumple your bones in his bogey embrace.
Never nevet go neat if you hold your life dear,
for oh! . . . what he'll do . . . when he gets you!

--::::-

THE VAMPIRE

Ffr

be nighr is stilt aDd soober,

and in the murkY gtoom,

from his slumber,

the vampire leaves his tomb'
a.tisen

His eyes are Pools of fle,

his skin is icy white,
and blood his one desire
this woebegotten ni8ht.
Then thtough the silent citY
he makes his silent wan
prepared to take no PitY
upon his haPless PreY.

Au open window treckons,

he grins a hungtY gtin,
and pausing not one semnd
he swifdY climbs

t4

within'

And there, beneath her covets,

his victim lies in sleep.

With fangs agleam, he hovers

and with those fangs, bites deep.

The vampire drioks till sated,

he flls his every pore,
and then, his thirst abated,
licks dean the dripping gore.

rvirh

powers now replenished,

his thirst no longer burDs.

His quest this oight is 6nished,

so to his tomb he tums'
and there awhile in silence
he'll rest beneath the mud
until, with thouShts of violedce,
he wakes and utters . . . blood !

t7

THE DRAGON OF DEATH

Tn a farawav. faraway forest

I li", n,r"".u." of in6nite worth.
but guarding it closelY forever
looms a being as old as the earth.
Its body is big as a boulder
and atmored with shimmering scales,
even the mouotaintops ttemble
when it thtashes its seven great tails.
Its eyes tell a story of tettor,
they gleam with afl angrY red fame
as it timelessly watches its riches,
and the dragon of death is its name.
Its teeth ate fai sharPer than daggers'
they can tear hardest metal to shreds.
It has seven mouths filled with theseweapons'
for its neck swells to seven great heads.
Each head is as frerce as the other,
Each head breathes a fetY bteath,
and any it touches must Perish,
set ablaze by the dtagon of death.

have foolishlY stumbled

on the dragon of death's golden cache

All who

remain evetmote in that forest,

nothing left of their bodies but ash'

1a

THE TROLL

the loathsome troll

that slyly lies in wait
to drag you to his dingy hole
and put you on his Plate.

T)e vary of

His blood is black and boiling hot,

he gurgles ghastly gtoans.
He'll cook you in his dinner Pot,
your skin, your desh, your bones.

He'll catch yout arms and clutch your legs

and grind you to a PulP,
then swallow you like scrambled eggsgobble! gobble !gulP !
So watch

your

stePs when next You go

uPon a Pleasant sttoll,

or you might end in the Pit below
as supper for the uoll.

20

\\r'

\\

:*,Ni

THE WITCH

Qhe comes by night. in fearsorne dight.

J in garments black as pitch.
the queen of doom uPon her broom,
the wild and wicked witch,
a

ca&ling crone with brittle bones

and desiccated limbs,

two evil eyes iith walts and sties

and bags about the rims,
a dangling nose, ten twisted toes

and folds of shriveled skin,

cracked and chipped and crackled lips
that frahe a toothless gtin.
She hurtles by, she sweePs the sky

and hutls a pietcing screech.

As she swoops past, a sPell is cast
on all her curses reach.

Take care to hide when thewild witch rides

to shriek her evil sPell.
$7hat she may do with a word or two
is much too grim to tell.

THE OGRE

fn a foul and 6lthy

cavern

where rhe sun has never shone,

the one-eyed ogte calmlY gnaws
a cold and

holdY bone.

He sits in silence in the slime

that 6lls his fetid home
and notes the nearing footstePs

in the monstrous catacomb.

The one-eyed ogre drools with joY,
his stony heart beats fast,
he knows that for some girl or boY
this day shall be their last.
He wields his uglY cudgel
in a wide and vicious arc,

it swiftly fnds his victim

in the deep and deadlY dark.
Then down and down and down again
the ogre's blows descend,
to rend, and render senseless,
to speed his victim's end.

pity those who stumble through

the one-eyed ogre's caveSo

that dark abode he calls his home

shall surely be their gtave.

24

r
THE WEREWOLF

Ffahe full moon glows, forebod.ing,

I and I quake froor head ro feet
for this night I know, in the town below,
the werewolf Prowls the street.
He sta.lks with stealth add cunnitrg
in his se4rch for a soul to eat.
lZith matted hait and jaws that tear,
the werwolf Ptowls the stleet.

His face is filled with fury

as his btain cties out {or meat,
aod oh his prey shall not see daY
for the werewolf ptowls the stteet.

shake beneath my covers

and I shiver in my sheet
and I cower in my bed with a pillow on my head,
So

as the

27

werewolf Prowls the street.

THE N(/IZARD

he wizard,

watchful,Iaits alone

within his tower of cold gtaY stone

and ponders in his wicked waY
what evil deeds he'll do this daY.
He's tall and thin, with wtinkled skin,
a tangled beard hangs from his chin'
his cheeks are gaunr. his eycs ser deep,
he scarcely eats, he needs no sleeP'
His frngers wave atcane commands'
ten bonY sticks on withered hands,
his flowing cloak is smirched with Srime'
he \ worn it since the dawn of rime
UPon his hat, in silrer lines
are PiLtured necromanLic 5igns'
sYmbol\ of thc a$e5ome Power

of the wizard, alone in h s cold srone towet'

He scans his mYstic stock in ttadecharms to fetch a demon's aid,
seething stews of putPlish potions,
throbbing thaumatutgic lotions,
supetnatural ttacts and tomes
reDlee wi(h lore of elves and gnomes'
taiismans, umutets, * illov'Y wand
to summon sPitits from beYond'

He spies a bullftog bY the door

and stooPing, scooPs it ofi the floot.
He ficls his wand, the frog's a flea
through elemental sorcern
the flea hoPs once, the flea hoPs twice,
the dea becomes a Pair of mice
that dive into a bubbling brcw,
emerging as one cockatoo.
The wizard laughs a hollow laugh,
tbe soaking bird's reduced bY half,
and when, PerPlexed, it starts to squawk,
the wizard tums it into chalk
with which he de{dY writes a sPell
that makes the chalk a silver bell
which tinkles in the ashen air
tilt flash . . . a fue bums brighdy thete'
He ges$tes with ao aDcient knack
to uy to bring tbe bullfrog back'
Another flash! . . . no flame trow butns
as once agarn the

fiog retulns'

but when it bounds about io fear,

the wizard shouts, "Begone from here,"
and midway thtough a frighteoed ctoak
it vanishes in clouds of smoke.
The wizard soitks a fiendish smirk
tefectmg on the woes he'll work
as he consults a dusry text
and checks which hex he'll coniure next'
He maY Pluck someone oft the sPot
and firn hirrr into ' ' ' who knows what?
Should you encounter a toad or lizald'
look dosely . . . it may be the work of the wizard'

3r

THE GHOUL

ghoul'
he gruesome ghoul, the grislY
without the slightest noise
waits patientlY beside the school
to feast on gitls and boYs'
He lunges fietcelY thtough the air
as rhey come out to PlaY'
hair
rhen grabs a couPle bY the
and drags them far awaY'

theit backs
He cracks their bones and snaps
and soueezes out rheir lungs'
snacks
he .hews their thumbs like candy
and pulls aPat their tongues'
heatts
He slices their stomachs and bites their
and tears their flesh to shreds'

their toes like toasted tatts

heads'
and gobbles down theit

he swallows

Fingers, elbows' hands and knees

andarms and legs and feetease'
he eats them with delight and

for

everY Part's a

tteat'

ghoul
And when the gruesome' gtislY
has nothing left to chew'
he hurries to another school
and waits . . . PerhaPs for You'

t2

inE oaNcr

oF THE THIRTEEN SKELETO\S

Tn a snow'enshrouded grareYard
I gripped by *inter's birter chill'
not a single soul is stirring,

all is silent, alt is still

till a distant bell tolls midnight
and the sPirits work theit will

lor emetging from their coffins

butied deeP beneath the snow'
thitteen bonY aPPatitions
now commence their spectral show'
and they gather in the moonlight
undulating as theY go'
And theY'll dance in theit bones'
in their bare bate bones'
with the click and the clack
and the chittet and the chack
and the clattet and the chatter

of their bate bare bones'

Thev shake theit flimsY shoulders
and thev flex theit fleshless knees
in greeting
and thi nod their skulls
in the Penetrating bteeze
as they foim an eerie circle
ttees'
neat the gnarled and twisted

34

They link their spirdly fngers

as they promenade around
casting otherworldly shadows
on the silver-mantled groufld
and theit footfalls in the snowdrift
make a soft and susutrous sound.
And they dance io their bones,
rn their bare bate bones,
with the click and the clack
and the chitter and the chack
and the clatter and the chatter
of their bare bare bones.
The thilteen grinning skeletons
continue on their waY
as to strains of soundless music
they begio to swing and sway
and they circle ever faster
in their ghastly toundelay.
Faster, fasteJ ever fastef
and yet faster now they race,
winding, whirling, ever swiding

in the frenzy of their Pace

and they shimmer in the moonlight
as they spin themselves through space.

37

And they dance in their bones,

in their bare bare bones,
with the click and the clack
and the chitter and the chack
and the clatter and chatter
of their bare bare bones.
Then as quickly as it started
theft nocturnal dance is done
for the bell that is their signal
loudly tolls the hour of one
and they bow to one anothei
in their bony unison.
Then they vanish to their coffins
by their ghostly thoroughfare
and the emptiness of silence
once more flls the frosted air
and the snows that mask their footpdnts
show no sign that they were there.

But they danced in their bones,

in their bate bare bones,
with the click and the clack
and the chittet and the chack
and the clatter and the chatter
of their bare bare bones.

38

ACK PRELUTSKY, before iltuminating the realms of

darkness in verse, entertained young readets with his
many devilishly funny books of animal poems. Among
these arc A Gopbet in tbe Garcler,Toacans Tuto an.l Otber
Poems,Tbe Pack Rat's Day,Tbe Tertible Tiger, ar.d Circusthe last two illustrated by Arnold Lobel.
Mt. Prelutsky's fine ttanslations of German verse
include The Bad Bear by Rudolf Neumann and N o End
ol Nonsetseby Wiltried Blecher.

A native of New York City, Jack Prelutsky now lives

in cambridge, Massachusetts.

RNOLD LOBEL is one of the most celebrated illustrators

=and aLrrhor-illustrators-of children s books today.
FtoI a AToad AteFiexds,
Among his most belovedbooks
^te
Oul at Home and Giaat lobn.Frog and. Toad Ate Friends
was a Caldecott Honor Book, while its sequel, Frogand.Toad
Togetber,w^s 'nall].ed Newbery Honor Book.
^
Mr. Lobel lives in Brooklyn, New York.