Vampires in Poetry

[Richard Stone]

Richard walked around his classroom, placing three sheets of paper on each table. He could tell that the students hadn't exactly been raving about the ideas of keeping a Poetry Journal, so he decided that today they would look at some poems that might appeal to at least a few of them, after all, how many students these days weren't into the dark side of Vampires?

He then walked back to the front of the room and put the heading Vampires in Poetry on the board and then walked to his desk to prepare the laptop with the power point slides that he would be using that day to help the students understand the terminology in the poems a little better, after all, they were rather old poems.

He then turned to greet the students as they walked into the room and found their seats. Leaving them to get themselves settled. He didn't mind if they chatted with each other before the lesson started, as long as they kept their voices down and weren't being rude toward other students in the class.

When the bell sounded, he stepped to the front of the room. "Good morning, class." He greeted. "As you will see from the paper on you're desk, we're going to be looking at three poems today. Don't worry if the lingo baffles you a little, I have slides that describe the old-fashioned terms." He looked around. "Rather than you all reading them silently, is there a chance I could have three volunteers to read them out loud?" He gave an encouraging smile. "And before anyone asks, no I do not mind if, by the end of the class, you want to put one of them in your journals."

---

Class List:
@anna
Brody O'Callaghan
@fitzwilliam
@jacobturcotte
@kate
@ronan

@natashka
@neigh
Adonya van Rutherford
@callie
@running9
@colemcgregor
Cortney Smit
Elizabeth Toman
Fionn Paquet
@running5
@neighneigh
@anya
Marguerite Girardeau
Othello Buskirk
@paisley
Rachel Deacon

[Cortney Smit]

Cortney laughed along with the other girls she was walking down the hall with and slipped out from under the arm of the Jock who felt he had the right to put his arm around her and then waved as she left the group and walked into the English classroom. She gave Mr Stone a bright smile as she waltzed over to her table in the middle of the room, pleased to see that she had made it in before the gym rat that day and flopped down, almost scattering the papers that were on the table.

After pulling out her journal and class folder, she turned her attention to the board and arched and eyebrow before she rolled her eyes. First it was the stupid journal and now vampires? This class was turning out to be the bane of her existence. However, she read through the papers on the desk, making small whimpering sounds as she did so and waited for the class to start. At least things would get better once Blythe walked in.

When the class did start, she refused to make eye contact with their teacher as there was no way on Earth that she was doing to read one of the poems out loud to the rest of the class. Instead, she looked down and picked imaginary lint off her cheer skirt.

[Othello Buskirk]

Othello walked down toward his next class, trying to keep away from everyone else. He was dressed in his warmest clothes, but still he felt cold and he knew that he couldn't chance catching a cold from anyone else. The worst of winter hadn't even hit yet and he was already longing for warmer weather. He wondered if his parents had put their Christmas tree up yet, and then wondered if this would be his last Christmas.

Walking into the classroom, he sat down at one of the tables closest to the wall away from the windows, yet not too close to the door either, and pulled the things he would need from his bag, as well as his ever-present drink bottle. He then looked at the paper on the desk. Although he wouldn't openly admit it to anyone, other than his girlfriend, but he was enjoying the poem journal, it gave him something to do on the odd day when he couldn't get out of bed, and his book was thickening up quite quickly.

Once the class started, he shook his head to the question about volunteers to read the poems, he wasn't that good at public speaking and he didn't think he'd be able to project his voice anyway, so he just silently declined and hoped that other students would step up and do the job.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby strode down the hallways, pushing her way past people who didn't move fast enough out of her way, and growling at those that needed to be pushed. Sooner or later, people were going to realise that she ruled this school, not the snotty cheer girls.

She walked into the classroom as though she were the Queen and smirked when she spotted Cortney. Walking forward as though she didn't have a care in the world, she plopped herself at the table in front of the other girl and began to pull her things out of her bag. She hadn't written any new poems into her journal, but she didn't think there was a lot the teacher could do.

She groaned when her attention turned to the board and she then looked down at the papers on the desk, picking the first one up as though it could be tainted. She had never been a fan of Twilight and all that vampire dribble, and she couldn't believe that an English teacher would use the subject to teach a class. Eww.

Her eyebrows shot up when they were asked to volunteer to read the filth that was on their table and she pulled a face at the mere thought of it, making it obvious that she wasn't going to offer.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn walked toward the English classroom, every now and then he would bounce on his right ankle. He'd landed wrong, not badly, just wrong, after finishing on the parallel bars that morning and he was still trying to work out if he should have at least iced and wrapped it - as he would do for a horse who had knocked their leg - but right now wasn't time for that, he needed to get to class.

Walking into the room. it wasn't difficult to feel the energy the fizzled between the cheer captain and gymnast, though he didn't do anything to encourage it. Rather than sitting next to Libby that day, he went and found a table under the windows and pulled the things he would need from his bag. "Cool." He breathed as he read the board and turned his attention the papers on the desk.

He grinned when Mr Stone asked for people to read the poems and without a second thought, he rose to his feet. "La Belle Dame Sans Merci. by: John Keats (1795-1821)." He began.

"Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing. 

Ah, what can ail thee, wretched wight,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done. 

I see a lily on thy brow,
With anguish moist and fever dew;
And on thy cheek a fading rose
Fast withereth too. 

I med a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild. 

I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long;
For sideways would she lean, and sing
A faery's song. 

I made a garland for her head,
And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She look'd at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan. 

She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew;
And sure in language strange she said,
'I love thee true.' 

She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she gazed, and sighed deep,
And there I shut her wild, wild eyes--
So kiss'd to sleep. 

And there we slumber'd on the moss,
And there I dream'd, ah! woe betide!
The latest dream I ever dream'd
On the cold hill side. 

I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd -- 'La Belle Dame sans Merci,
Hath thee in thrall!' 

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke, and found me here
On the cold hill side. 

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing."

With a bow, he sat back down again, wondering if he should use this as the next entry to his journal.

[Deleted]

Paisley followed the other students down the hallway as she tried to figure out the rooms. It wasn't her first day here and she still couldn't figure out all the rooms. She looked at her paper and smiled when she found the right room. Her brows raised as she noticed a boy in clothing that looked to be swallowing him whole. Two girls with both their noses in the air trying to be better than each other. Then a guy by the window who seemed pretty cool, but she didn't say so out loud. She moved about the tables and decide for a seat to the left away from the windows so she wouldn't be caught day dreaming.

She caught the pieces of paper from the desk before putting her bag down beside her chair and took on a pencil. She looked up at the board and frowned. While the Twilight series were going on she didn't have time to read that nonsense. She actually hated the fact they were going to learn about vampires today, but she will try to seem interested.

She spoke a whispered "morning" to the teacher before wrinkling her nose as the thought of reading out loud, but it didn't take very long for the boy by the window to stand up and read to the whole class about some dude dreaming about making love to a woman and then wake up on a cold hill side. Did she know what it meant? No, but she would like to learn what the teacher thought was so "cool" about the poems.

[Adonya van Rutherford]

Blythe pushed open the door to the English classroom, her grey eyes going over the occupants briefly before she stepped inside, headed for the central table. As she perched in the chair next to Cortney, she smiled over at the girl, whom she hadn't seen since they had left for their respective classes that morning. Of course, not sharing made the classes that she did see the cheer captain even better, even if this was the class that they shared with the wanna-be gymnast... Why was she sitting right in front of them? It wasn't like it was really an inconvenience to them.

Noting Cortney's reaction to the papers they had in front of them, Blythe glanced down, already frowning as she read the first word on the page. Now her roommate's reaction was understandable, and Blythe couldn't blame her. It was silly, although these seemed to be proper poems, not the sort of Twilight drivel that vampires had become now. She scanned over the three poems, although when Mr. Stone asked for volunteers, she briefly shook her head, her eyes still on the paper. There was no way that she was reading these, those kids that couldn't read for themselves shouldn't be in this class... Really, this school, anyway.

[Rachel Deacon]

As soon as she had felt the three sheets of paper on the desk, Rachel's heart had sunk. It was a bit of a relief, however, to hear that they were going to be read aloud to the class. At least she would be able to put the titles of the poems and the names of the poets in her notes and look them up later and hopefully find an audio version somewhere on the internet.

Although she was a new student, she had been informed about the practise of keeping a poetry journal, something which completely baffled the girl. While she enjoyed the few pieces of poetry that she had been able to listen to on audio tapes and downloads, keeping a journal of it? Having to pin down words that were meant to flow from mouth to ear in waves of liquid sound? It felt... wrong to Rachel.

Hearing one of her classmates start to recite one of the poems, she quickly noted down the title and poet and settled back to listen to it in the way that she thought that poetry was meant to be communicated.

As the poem came to an end, she dropped her head, hoping that the teacher wouldn't call on her to read. He shouldn't, but she had had teachers on occasion who forgot and called on her to read aloud.

[Deleted]

Classes were close to being done, but they drug on as if taunting him, Christmas would soon be here and that meant that classes would not. He walked carefree down the hallway and to his English class. He wasn't really crazy about the reading, writing, and poem stuff but he got used to the idea that he would have to take them until he graduated out of the academy. Jackson got his class and took a seat quietly. He muffled a laugh as he looked at the papers that were on his desk. Vampires, really?" He thought to himself. Who on earth would enjoy this stuff, though he hoped Mr. Stone wasn't making the class read these poems because he enjoyed them.

Jackson was never really a fan of mythology, vampires, zombies and things similar to them. It was what it was and that was fiction. It was fun to read but if he read anything it would be to improve his knowledge on the real world, not some fantasies world in which would never and never has excised. He listened to Mr. Stone ask for volunteers to read the poems. It was definitely not going to be him or at least he hoped. He listened to Finn read out loud the first poem.

[Deleted]

Classes were flying by so fast and before he would know it Winter break would be upon the academy. Chase was looking forward to the time that he would get to spend relaxing. English was the next class that would hopefully fly by like the rest of his academic classes did. Entering the classroom a few other students were there already and so Chase just took a seat. He screwed up his face at the sight of the poems. He didn't have a thing against poems, but what the poems were about was just silly. Vampires weren't real and Twilight irritated him, it was all make believe and dumb in all honesty.

This was a class and so he had no choice really but to read it. Chase scanned the classroom of students when Mr. Stone called class to start. There were new students, which was odd with the time of the year and all but he just shrugged it off and listened to the teacher ask if anyone would actually want to read out loud, looking around it seemed as though most were opposed to it. One student named Finn wasn't though he stood up and read through the first poem, good thing he did, because Chase wasn't going to.

[Deleted]

Liesl headed to her next class.  English literature.  This should be interesting she mused.  Liesl was dressed in black dress pants with black kitten heels and a silver long sleeve blouse.  Walking into the class she said a hello to the teacher before sitting down at an empty table.  She set her back pack down next to her chair and looked at the board. Vampires? Seriously? Well it would certainly be interesting whether that was a good thing or a bad thing was yet to be seen.

She grabbed a notebook and a pen opening it to an clean page. She wrote out what they would be doing that day. Hopefully this class would go by quickly. She looked over the poems quickly and stifled a sigh.  Great.   The bell sounded signaling the start of class.  The teacher said that three people would read them out loud rather then everyone reading them silently in their head.  No she would not volunteer to read.  She didn't do well reading out loud rather preferring to read silently instead of reading out loud. One of her peers stood up and began one of the poems. Liesl followed along reading silently even though she didn't like the poetry.  Once the boy reading had sat down there was silence in the class room.  No one volunteered to read and Liesl didn't volunteer. 

[Deleted]

Cole, clad in black jeans, a blue long sleeved shirt, sneakers, and a pea coat, made his way to his English lit class. He always enjoyed his English classes - he liked reading and relished the opportunity to discuss works of literature with his classmates and teachers. Perhaps that made him a bit nerdy, but the enthusiasm he had for it allowed it to be more endearing than anything.

He walked into the classroom and quickly greeted his teacher before finding an empty seat toward the front of the class. After taking out a notebook and pen, he glanced at the pieces of paper on the desk. Even without looking at the board, it wasn't hard to see that, in an effort to better engage his students, Mr. Stone had chosen poems related to vampires, creatures whose popularity had been growing in recent years alongside zombies. Cole listened as his classmate read the first poem and followed along on his own copy, putting stars or underlining parts that intrigued or confused him.

Realizing that nobody was eager to volunteer to read the next poem, Cole spoke up - "I'll read it," he said humbly. He raised the paper in front of him without standing up, and began to read:
The Glamour, by Lord Byron.

But first on this earth as vampire sent,
Thy corpse shall from the tomb be rent:
Then ghastly haunt thy native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race:
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid, living corpse.
Thy victims are they yet expire
Shall know the demon for the sire,
As cursing thee , thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.
Not being blind to the drama of the poem, Cole added a bit of humorous flair to each line, looking around the class every now and then with a smile and chuckle to show that he was not being entirely serious. He put the paper back down when he finished and subtly bowed his head to his teacher, hoping Mr. Stone would understand that he was not mocking the poem and other material in front of him, but further engaging himself and possibly his classmates.

[Deleted]

Amber said hello to Mr. Stone, as she walked into class.  She tried to avoid the gaze of the preps, as she looked for a seat.  She saw Finn, who made her a little uneasy but she could not keep herself from feeling bad for walking out on him so quickly the other day.  She sat down a few seats away from him.  She looked toward him and did her best to smile, slightly.  "Hi Finn" she greeted. 

She looked at the board and at the papers on her desk, with slight disappointment.  Amber thought that vampires and zombies and such were kind of creepy.  In junior high she had observed that a lot of the others girls seemed to really like books about vampires.  She did not understand why, but she had never tried too because she had never felt like she should have anything to do with the other girls at school, mainly because her brother didn't allow it.  She had always had a secret desire to be part of a click of girls, but this was the first year since early elementary school that she had spoken more then a few words with any of the others girls at school.

Amber certainly was not going to volunteer to read one of the poems.  She rarely spoke in class, as it was too nerve-wracking.  When Finn, and a guy who she didn't know the name of volunteer to read, she read along as they read and, she was so confused, she felt like an idiot.  

[Deleted]

Julius strolled into the classroom, holding his head high, as usual.  He nodded at the teacher and sat down at a table, by himself because he was too cool to share a table, next to a group of girls.

He was surprised to find out that the lesson today was about vampires.  He liked vampires and thought they were kind of cool.  He had actually been a vampire in a ballet three times and each time he had been happy with that role and done a pretty good job.  That had been around Halloween time.  This seemed like the wrong time of year for vampires.  

Julius was pleased when Mr. Stone asked for volunteers.  He liked volunteering in class.  It got him attention.  Two other guys read before him, and then he raised his hand and stood up to read the third one before anyone else could, secretly pleased that it was the shortest one.  He read in a serious tone, trying to sound like he understood it more then he did.

"Oil and Blood by: William Butler Yeats


"In tombs of gold and lapis lazuli

Bodies of holy men and woman exude

Miraculous oil, odor of violet.


"But under heavy load of trampled clay

Lie bodies of vampires full of blood:

Their shrouds are bloody and their lips are wet." 

    He bowed at the end and then sat back down, hoping that he had been impressive.  He found it strange that the other two volunteers had also been guys and wonder why no girls had volunteered.  

[Deleted]

Alexandra grabbed her book bag and slung it over one shoulder. Pulling out her schedule and map from the outer pocket of the book bag she unfolded it and held it against a notebook. Finding her next class which was English Literature she located it on the map. Fighting her way against the crowd she still got jostled by the students. 

Walking to the English literature class she found an empty seat at the front of the class and sat down after saying a hello to her teacher. Folding the map and schedule back up she stuck it back in her backpack before pulling out a pen and opening her English notebook to a clean page unsure if they were to be taking notes that day or not. 

Glancing at the board she saw the words Vampires in Poetry. Vampires like in Twilight? She had never read the books choosing to stay away from any books that the students at her old school talked about. One of which had been that particular book, or series she guessed. She read through the poems silently noting that they didn't seem like the book her old peers had been obsessing over. 

Once class started the teacher asked for volunteers to read the poems. She was grateful for that. She had no wish to read at all. Alexandra didn't like reading in front of others or doing a demonstration. Really anything to do with standing in front of a crowd of people she hated.

No girls volunteered to read so maybe they didn't like vampires or just hated to read out loud? Instead the boys in the class choose to step up and read the poems. They all did a good job reading. Much better then what Alexandra would've done if this hadn't been by volunteers and if she had been picked to read.