Thy soul shall find itself alone
‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tombstone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.
The Poem
“Spirits of the Dead” explores the mysteries of life and death in a convincing and evocative fashion–which is somewhat surprising, as Poe was a mere 18 years old when it was first published (under the title “Visit of the Dead.”) The poem is five stanzas long (the first two are reproduced above), and it does not stick with any consistent structure or rhyme scheme. For all that, it’s a remarkably haunting and, in its own way, beautiful poem. (I will let slide his rhyming of “Heaven” and “given.” But not so “pry” and “secrecy.”)
All that said, it’s the imagery that I find most notable: “gray tombstone,” “high thrones in the Heaven,” “red orbs, without beam,” “the breath of God,” “shadowy yet unbroken.” They’re the kind of phrases you’d find in a Gothic ghost story. And that’s convenient, because I’ve been dying (ha!) to make a ghost-themed cocktail. So let’s do this!
The full poem is available here.
The Drink
There are a number of “ghost” cocktails out there, most of which are white and frothy. Who am I to go against that formula? I’m envisioning something like Casper the Friendly Ghost, that’s cute and saccharine and, if you binge on it, makes you want to throw up. So let’s get to it!
Ingredients:
1-½ oz RumChata
1 oz vanilla vodka
2 oz Cool Whip
Splash of spiced rum
1 Peeps ghost
Mix all the liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a Peeps ghost. You should use your own judgment with the spiced rum. I added it to combat the cloying sweetness of the RumChata and Cool Whip, but you might not feel that’s quite as necessary as I did. Alternatively, you might substitute whipping cream for the Cool Whip. Follow your instincts here. Truth be told, the only indispensable ingredient is the Peeps ghost.
Poe-Script
The title “Spirits of the Dead” was borrowed for a 1968 horror film released by American International. The movie is an anthology of three Poe stories, each directed by a different director. However, none of the three tales relates to the eponymous poem. You should not confuse this with “Orgy of the Dead,” which was a 1965 nude zombie film by none other than Ed Wood.
Chasing Phantoms 