Symons' "The Vampire" Poem (1896)

Image Copyright Sandra Ormandy 2012

When designing my July 6, 2014 presentation on the Victorian representation of the vampire figure in their literature for the 2014 Gearcon in Portland, Oregon, I re-found this rather wonderful poem by Symons. Written in 1896, his lyric idea of  “The Vampire” portrays women as a meteorically traditional vampire. Even his presentation of  death here could easily be that of sexual orgasm. 

"The Vampire"

"Intolerable woman, where’s the name

For your insane complexity of shame?

Vampire! White bloodless creature of the night,

Whose lust of blood has blanched her chill veins white.

Veins fed with moonlight over dead men’s tombs;

Whose eyes remember many martyrdoms.

So that their depths, whose depths cannot be found,

Are shadowed pools in which a soul lies drowned.

Who would fain have pity, but she may not rest

Till she have sucked his life-blood from his breast.

And drained his lifeblood from him, vein by vein,

And seen his eyes grow brighter for the pain,

And his lips sigh her name with his last breath

As the man swoons ecstatically on death.