In the past, I’ve written about gleefully ignoring Halloween in the secondary language arts classroom. However, I have to admit, this year I’m paying a little more attention to holidays. In part, this comes from wanting to infuse some fun into an unusual and difficult school year.
With that in mind, I put together this collection of frightening Halloween titles to consider for your secondary English classroom!
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Poems for Halloween
When I started brainstorming spooky poems for Halloween, “Richard Cory” (read it here) by Edwin Arlington Robinson was the first title that came to mind! The poem’s twist ending makes it ideal for this time of year. However, I already included this poem in my unit on The Great Gatsby. So, with Robinson in mind, I thought of “Miniver Cheevy,” whose story is every bit as depressing and haunting. Get both of these poems (and another title for free) in my Edwin Arlington Robinson bundle.
Similarly, I also thought about a trio of poems I use to teach inference. These poems complement one another in that they have a shared symbol. Each one is creepy and haunting in its own way. Together, these titles are great tools for teaching synthesis skills. You can grab all three here.
- Firstly, “To Kill a Deer” by Carol Frost is a brutal poem. Frost uses violence and imagery to provide commentary on masculinity and self-destruction. Read it here.
- Secondly, “Deer Hunt” by Judson Jerome is a great complement to Frost’s poem, touching on similar subjects without a touch of romanticism. Read it here.
- Thirdly, “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford shares symbolism with Frost and Jerome’s works. Stafford’s poem, however, has a darkness that truly fits this season! Read it here.
Finally, is anything more disturbing to an English teacher than book burning? The lost opportunities at the heart of “Burning a Book” by William Stafford make it frightening in an entirely different way! This is also a good title if you want something thoughtful but not directly related to Halloween. Read it here.
Halloween Short Stories
If you are looking for something a little longer than a poem, a title that might take 2-5 days, these titles are for you!
For a two-day read, consider Comparing Gothic Heroines: Wuthering Heights and Northanger Abbey. Students do not have to be familiar with either novel to appreciate the similarities between Cathy Earnshaw and Catherine Moreland. Not only do these characters share a first name, they share the elements of the Gothic heroine that make them ideal subjects for Halloween.
Another woman character to consider at Halloween is the speaker in “The Yellow Wall-paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. While this title isn’t expressly spooky, there’s definitely something spectral about the title wall-paper. What’s more, the oppression the speaker suffers and internalizes is far more frightening than any traditional Halloween fare. Read it here.
For more traditional Halloween titles, you can’t do worse than “Berenice” by Edgar Allan Poe or The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. These are both on the longer side: “Berenice” is dense writing, and The Turn of the Screw is a novella. However, these titles are sure to engage students in discussion!
Finally, if you’re looking for more traditional monster fare, The Odyssey offers several episodes with monsters of every type:
Longer Works
If you are looking for a longer text that will last into or go beyond Halloween, here are some titles to consider.
Firstly, The Crucible has “witches.” Is there anything more fitting for Halloween than the fear of a witch hunt? Read about how I start my unit on The Crucible.
Similarly, no one does ghosts quite like William Shakespeare. Even with a classroom practicing social distancing, the ghost scenes in some of his best-loved plays are fun to act out. Check out these resources for some of his most-famous plays:
- Hamlet
- Julius Caesar
- Macbeth (that ghostly dagger is the stuff Halloween is made of)
Halloween Honorable Mentions
- “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant is all about death. It’s a profound, metaphysical, and revarant look at death, but it fits the bill. Read it here.
- “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats is the cream of the crop in apocalyptic poetry. Is there a subject more appropriate for Halloween? Read it here.
- “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards is just plain scary. All that hellfire? Perfect for Halloween. Read it here.
What titles do you recommend for this time of the year? Let us know in the comments!
