The household ten
Ten Poems for the Dark, in the Order They Should Be Read
Ten poems old enough to be free to read, one line from each as first printed, and the correct running order.
By Constance Tally The Parlour · The Lists 2026-10-26
These are for reading aloud, by the fire if the house has one and by the radiator if it does not. Every line quoted here was checked against a public-domain edition on Wikisource and is printed with that edition’s own spelling and punctuation, which is how Burns gets to keep his Scots and Riley his Gobble-uns.
The running order
- 1
The Raven 1845
Poem · Edgar Allan Poe
Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."
A bird with a one-word vocabulary wins every argument in the house.
- 2
Halloween 1786
Poem · Robert Burns
Upon that night, when Fairies light On Cassilis Downans dance,
Twenty-eight stanzas of Ayrshire party games for the night itself, in Scots. Keep a glossary by the fire.
- 3
Goblin Market 1862
Poem · Christina Rossetti
"Come buy our orchard fruits, Come buy, come buy:
Two sisters, one market, and the oldest consumer advice there is: do not buy from goblins.
- 4
Tam o’ Shanter 1791
Poem · Robert Burns
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.
A farmer rides home late past a kirk full of witches. The real danger is the wife waiting up, and the line above is about her.
- 5
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 1798
Poem · Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.
A sailor shoots an albatross, then explains it at length to a wedding guest who was trying to get in.
- 6
Christabel 1816
Poem · Samuel Taylor Coleridge
’Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,
Coleridge planned five parts and finished two, so the stranger in the castle has never been explained.
- 7
Annabel Lee 1849
Poem · Edgar Allan Poe
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Even the angels were envious, the narrator says, which is the kind of thing a widower says.
- 8
The Listeners 1912
Poem · Walter de la Mare
‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
A man knocks at a house where nobody answers and something listens. Every delivery driver knows the feeling.
- 9
The Highwayman 1906
Poem · Alfred Noyes
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
A highwayman, an innkeeper’s daughter and a company of redcoats. He keeps coming back afterwards, as these men do.
- 10
The Cremation of Sam McGee 1907
Poem · Robert W. Service
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
A prospector freezes in the Yukon and is cremated as he asked. He reports, from inside, that it is warm at last.
Read them in this order. I have given the matter more thought than it appears.
