The Poeming: Dracula's Dirge

Image credit: Austin Molloy, 1933.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 30: Another

my heart as to the earth

another round and we shall meet

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 261 and 266 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 30 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 29: Imagination would unseat reason

memory begins to flirt with me

how conveniently we can dream

[This is a found poem made of words located on page 264 (title) and pages 260, 264, and 265 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 29 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 28: Any cause

any cause for restlessness— a storm you see coming nearer than ever to your heart— was distorted into a story

dreaming and intention were both in their places but devotion only stole through me

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 64, 78, 79, 91, 93, 96, and 170 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 28 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 27: I could not mistake the hands destroying my own shadow

time seemed endless tied to my wrist

and prayer a collar round my throat

I had thought no night can leave a scar which the sunrise cannot pierce

I know better this morning

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 37 and 38 (title) and pages 89 to 97 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 27 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 26: A series

I don’t want to be free I want to walk this cursed land with earthly feet

in all the wide world only God has made a series of accidents most harrowing

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 57, 64, 65, 172, and 175 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 26 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 25: A theory proved

selfishness has purpose a theory proved in a cumulative way

getting injured and slighted did not wring my confidence from me

reticence did not disturb me once

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 60, 61, 72, 75, and 101 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 25 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 24: In turns

in turns stronger and softer, some dreams had weight;

silent in the fighting, your wishes unattended were strangers,

reduced from extraordinary state to the dusty nature of a sovereign hand

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 136, 157, 159, and 161 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 24 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 23: Do you ever

do you ever try to read your own face

it is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 59 and 76 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 23 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 22: An object-lesson in the limitations of self

I search myself for trust or no trust

an entire stranger I had no alternative but to accept

with a diary new begun and a sufficient light to note it well

no tremble of the hand shall make the mind shudder

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 171 and 175 (title) and pages 167 to 171 and 177 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 22 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 21: I understood

I understood how the soft lines of the night registers an oath

her very thoughts go into the hands of strangers

but not a word to another

there was a wilderness of passed hours, leaving traces of the present turned gently back like a winding sheet

the heart remarked in a confidential way—

I did not look for any specific thing; I only hoped to find all that there was

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 156 and 161 to 169 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 21 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 20: This prisoner

as a woman under the circumstances

circumstances being human nature

this prisoner of wild feeling shall need and need and come to no definite conclusion

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 167, 171, 178, and 181 (first two lines) and page 31 (last three lines) in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 20 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 19: The desire to be known

improper questions do me good

the more grotesque the better

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 21 and 25 (title) and pages 134, 135, 136, and 176 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 19 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 18: My questionable housekeeping

all my faults were rooms nice and comfortable

I make my home like I make my decision(s) tarnished with orderly disorder

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 44 and 158 (title) and pages 123, 158, 162, 201, and 306 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 18 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 17: Some senses of freedom soothed and some bit back

sharp teeth in connection with a burning desire to disobey

like an animal when the hand that is to tickle it approaches

[This is a found poem made of words located on pages 37, 40, 43, and 62 (title) and pages 40 to 42 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 17 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 16: This nocturnal existence

allied to the moonlight to the obstinacy which wrung my heart

I know the moment that longing made me intolerable

now I quarrel openly with my own bed— nothing but bad dreams for those who sleep unwisely

[This is a found poem made of words located on page 37 (title) and pages 37 to 49 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 16 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 15: The suburban fancies are the most dangerous

spend the night one, out of so many harmless ones

or so I say

we have already read everything, fixed for facts

and the opacity of our bodies was all we had in common

in a world which is one half shut from the light there is no aperture for apology

[This is a found poem made of words located on page 200 (title) and pages 84, 95, 199, 241, 244, 245, 249, 255, and 257 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 15 2025.

[thepoeming-draculasdirge]

April 14: Her health distorted, or; pneumonia again

every breath came laboured lungs clumsy with obedience

I startled myself, this stranger, drawn and haggard, gasping for air

[This is a found poem made of words located on page 96 (first half of title) and pages 94, 95, 98, and 99 in the source text.]

Source text: Stoker, Bram. Dracula. 1897. April 14 2025.