What's that? A Poem?

That Old Haunted House

That old haunted house was so creepy, so crawly

so ghastly, so ghostly, so gruesome, so skully-and-bony.

That old haunted house gave me nightmares and daymares

and shutters and shivers and quivers and quavers and quakes.

That old haunted house made my hair stand on end and my

heart pound-pound-pound and the blood in my veins ice-cold-freezing.

That old haunted house gave me goose bumps and throat lumps

and ch-ch-ch-chattering teeth and the sh-sh-sh-shakes

That old haunted house made me shriek, made me eeek,made

me faint, made me scared-to-death scared, made me all-over sweat.

Would I ever go back to that old haunted house?

You bet. 

Judith Viorst 

Cobwebs, Chatters, and Chills is an anthology of poem compiled by Patricia M. Stockland. This book contained poems with a Halloween theme, and each poem focused on a different type or poem or different element of poetry. From meter, to rhyme, to teaching what an is acrostic, to listing onomatopoeias this anthology covers all the basics of poetry. The particular poem, "That Old Haunted House" by Judith Viorst gives great examples of different elements. The author uses alliteration in words like creepy and crawly, ghastly, ghostly, and gruesome, and quivers, quavers, and quakes. The author also uses figurative language, and takes advantage of rhythm to make the poem pleasing to the hear. Although there is no direct rhyming or rhythm, there is rhythm felt throughout the piece. The author also uses repetition to make the poem easy and fun to read by starting each sentence with 'That old haunted house...' She also adds emotion and suspense to the text by drawing words of like 'sh-sh-sh-shakes' and creating words that evoke feeling. All of the poems in the book paint a picture of Halloween, and create suspense in the readers mind. This book is relevant to students, because they all are aware of Halloween and creepy-crawlies. It also appeals to the students in what they would find interesting and motivate them to read more poetry. This particular poem would appeal to children as well, because they have all seen a creepy house that they may have been scared to drive by, or even go in!