The Imp Of The Perverse

by Lillian Csernica on October 5, 2023

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In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story that explored in fictional form concepts that would later be examined in the works of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The title of the story, The Imp Of The Perverse, has passed into the English language as a turn of phrase referring to self-destructive urges or behavior. Poe himself describes it this way:

“We stand upon the brink of a precipice. We peer into the abyss—we grow sick and dizzy. Our first impulse is to shrink away from the danger. Unaccountably we remain… it is but a thought, although a fearful one, and one which chills the very marrow of our bones with the fierceness of the delight of its horror. It is merely the idea of what would be our sensations during the sweeping precipitancy of a fall from such a height… for this very cause do we now the most vividly desire it.“

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As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, when I was a teenager I had a strong curiosity about all things supernatural. I read a lot of books, both fiction and nonfiction. I watched a lot of movies, both documentary and total make-believe. All of this research and exploration churned inside my mind and gave rise to this poem, published by editor Emerian Rich on HorrorAddicts.Net.

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EVIL SIRENS SWEETLY SINGING

Wake to the world of the darkness

Wake! To the world of the Night.

Burn with the fires of Hecate

Ache with the Devil’s delight.

Live in the land of Jung’s Shadow

Dance in the mind’s shady gloom

Dive into Charon’s black waters

Swing on the bellrope of Doom!

Hark to the Muse of the Lethe

Smash sanity’s last painful shard

Revel with your nightmare secrets

Give voice to the soul’s darkest bard.

Cry with your soul’s hundred voices

Fling wide the crypt in your heart

Bathe in the hungers within you

Damnation is only the start!

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