List of Christmas Movies and Shows We’ve Watched Between 2019 and 2023

235 titles in alphabetical order. Includes movies and TV shows/episodes. I’ve removed the ‘A’ and ‘The’ at the beginning of titles. This is the complete list to accompany the post Christmas Movie Watch.

Christmas movie watching season begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends January 6 (twelve days after Christmas).

1000 Miles From Christmas (2012)
12 Christmas Wishes For My Dog (2011)
12 Dates of Christmas all episodes, all seasons (2020)
13 Slays Till Christmas (2020)
42 Days of Christmas Movies
8-Bit Christmas (2021)
AD/BC: A Rock Opera (2004)
All Creatures Great and Small (2022)
All is Bright (2013)
All the Creatures Were Stirring (2018)
An Elf’s Story: The Elf on the Shelf (short) (2011)
Anna & the Apocalypse (2017)
Apartment (1960)
Arthur Christmas (2011)
Babes in Toyland (1986)
Bad Moms Christmas (2017)
Bad Santa (2003)
Bakin It – TV Series
Batman Returns (1992)
Best Man Holiday (2013)
Best. Christmas. Ever. (2023)
Better Watch Out (2016)
Bishop’s Wife (1947)
Bitch Who Stole Christmas (2021)
Black Christmas (1974)
Black Christmas (2006)
Black Friday (2021) (is it a christmas movie, tho?)
Candy Cane Lane (2023)
Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
Castle for Christmas (2021)
Catfish Christmas (2022)
Christmas as Usual (2023)
Christmas Carol (1951)
Christmas Carol (1984)
Christmas Carol (TV series) (2019)
Christmas Chronicles (2018)
Christmas Chronicles 2 (2020)
Christmas Flow (didn’t finish) (2021)
Christmas Horror Story (2015)
Christmas House (2020)
Christmas House 2 (2021)
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
Christmas Inheritance (2017)
Christmas is Cancelled (2021)
Christmas Karen (2022)
Christmas Movie Christmas (2019)
Christmas on the Farm (2021)
Christmas Prince (2017) the movie that sparked it all
Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby (2019)
Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding (2018)
Christmas Set-up (2020)
Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
Christmas Tale (2008)
Christmas to Treasure (2022)
Christmas Train (2017)
Christmas Vacation (1989)
Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
Christmas With You (2022)
Cloudy with a Chance of Christmas (2022)
Cup of Cheer (2020)
Cupid for Christmas (2021)
Dash & Lily (2020)
Dashing in December (2020)
Dashing Through the Snow (2023)
Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas (2021)
Dean Martin Christmas Show (1968)
Deck the Halls (2006)
Designing Christmas (2022)
Dickensian (2015), Ep 9&10
Dickensian (2015), Ep. 8
Dickensian (2015), episode 2
Dickensian (2015), episode 3
Dickensian (2015), episode 4
Dickensian (2015), episode 5
Dickensian (2015), Episode 6
Dickensian (2015), Episode 7
Dickensian (2015), series, first episode
Die Hard (1988)
Dognapped: A Hound for the Holidays (2022)
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (2020)
Dolly Parton’s Mountain Magic Christmas (2022)
El Camino Christmas (2017)
Elf (2003)
Elves (2018)
Elves (Netflix Danish series) (2021)
ExMas (2023)
Falling for Christmas (2022)
Family Man (2000)
Family Stone (2005)
Family Switch (2023)
Fantasy Island: Welcome to the Snow Globe (2021)
Father Christmas is Back (2021)
Feast of the Seven Fishes (2023)
Four Christmases (2008)
Fred Claus (2007)
Friday After Next (2002)
Frosty the Snowman ()
Genie (2023)
Ghost Story for Christmas (series), ep. The Stalls of Barchester (197-)
Godmothered (2020)
Great British Baking Show: Holidays (2020)
Great Rupert (1950)
Gremlins (1984)
Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas (2023) (didn’t finish)
Hanukkah on Rye (2022)
Happiest Season (2020)
Haul Out the Holly (2022)
Hitched for the Holidays (2012)
Holdovers (2023)
Holidate (2020)
Holiday (1938)
Holiday Affair (1949)
Holiday Dating Guide (2022)
Holiday in the Vineyards (2023)
Holiday Shift (series), episode 1
Holiday Shift, episodes 2&3
Holiday Shift, final episode(s)
Holiday Sitter (2022)
Hollywood Christmas (2022)
Home Alone (1990)
Home for Christmas Season 2 (2020)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1969)
How to Ruin Christmas (Season 1 – 2)
I Believe in Santa (2022)
I Hate Christmas (), S2 Ep6
I Hate Christmas (2023), S2 Ep2
I Hate Christmas (2023), S2 Ep2
I Hate Christmas (series 2022)
I Hate Christmas (Series), (2023), episode 1
I Hate Christmas, S2 Ep3, December 23
Ice Harvest (2005)
Ideal Home (2018)
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder (2022)
It’s Christmas Carol (2012)
Jack Frost (1997)
Jack Frost (1998)
Jingle Bell Bride (2020)
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020)
Jinkx and Dela Christmas Show (2020)
Kacey Musgraves Christmas Show (2019)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Klaus (2019)
Krampus (2015)
Ladies of the ‘80s: A Divas Christmas
Last Christmas (2019)
Last Holiday (2006)
Last Tango in Halifax Christmas Special (2017)
Let It Snow (2019)
Letters to Satan Claus (2020)
Librarians and Santa’s Midnight Run (2014)
Love Actually (2003)
Love Hard (2021)
Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
Medea Christmas (2013)
Meet Me in Saint Louis (1944)
Menorah in the Middle (2022)
Merry Friggin’ Christmas (2014)
Merry Happy Whatever (2019), TV Series, episode 01
Merry Little Batman (2023)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)
Mistletoe & Menorahs (2019)
Mixed Nuts (1994)
Most Wonderful Time of the Year (2008)
Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (1962)
Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Murder She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery
My Southern Family Christmas (2022)
Nasty Piece of Work (2019) (Blumhouse holiday Into the Dark series)
Naughty or Nice (2021)
New York Christmas Wedding (2020)
Night Before (2015)
Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
No Sleep til Christmas (2018)
Noel Diary (2022)
Noelle (2019)
Once Upon a Christmas (2000)
One Magic Christmas (1985)
Pottersville (2017)
Preacher’s Wife (1996)
Princess Switch (2018)
Princess Switch 2 (2020)
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010)
Red Christmas (2016)
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (1964)
Sacrifice Games (2023)
Santa Camp (2022), documentary
Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (1970)
Santa Clause (1994)
Santa Girl (2019)
Santa Inc. (2021)
Santa Jaws (2018)
Santa Stakeout (2021)
Santa Who? (2000)
Scrooge (1935)
Scrooge (1970)
Scrooged (1988)
Serendipity (2001)
Shared Rooms (2016)
Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989)
Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 (1987)
Single All the Way (2021)
Snow (2004)
Snow 2: Brain Freeze (2008)
Snow Globe Christmas (2013)
Spirited (2023)
Stopped – Da Kath and Kim Code (2005)
This Christmas (2007)
Trading Places (1983)
Trailer Park Boys: XMas Special (2004)
Treevenge (short) (2008)
Under the Christmas Tree (2021)
Unlikely Angel (1996)
Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011)
Very Murray Christmas (2015)
Very Sunny Christmas (2009)
Violent Night (2022)
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
White Christmas (1954)
White Reindeer (2013)
Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery (2022)
Winter Romance aka Colors of Love (watched 11/26) (2021)
Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
Yoh! Christmas (2023), episode one
You Better Watch Out (aka Christmas Evil) (1980)
Your Christmas or Mine? (2022)
Your Christmas or Mine? 2 (2023)
Yule Log (2022)
Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas (2021)

Christmas Movie Watch

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it on this blog but I have watched A LOT of Christmas movies. (I’ll append a partial list at the bottom of this post.) And, on Friday, I’ll start to watch more.

I haven’t always been this way. There was a time when I shunned everything Christmas. Just not my vibe.

So, how does something like this happen?

Our Christmas movie watching started in 2019 but it’s rooted in our movie watching habit which began in 1999.

One of the ways Jennifer and I bonded when we started dating is through movies. Friday night quickly became movie night when we dated (hmmm, now that I think about it, we started hanging out and watching movies before we started dating) in 1999 and it’s been a part of our routine for the last quarter century.

Some quick math. Watching 50 movies a year for 25 years equals 1250 movies. We haven’t watched a movie every single Friday night, but more often than not. And, we often watch movies even when it’s not Friday night. So, a conservative estimate is that we’ve watched more than 1300 movies together.

That’s a lot of movies.

We’ve watched entire horror franchises, we’ve selected performers and watched every movie in which they appeared. We’ve picked out directors and writers and watched everything they’ve done. We were once diligent about watching everything nominated in the major categories of the Academy Awards. We’ve gone through phases of watching classics, indies, international, animation, musicals, and all the genres. We watch highly recommended flicks and cringe-inducing schlock.

But not Christmas movies.

Until 2019.

It was the day before Christmas, or perhaps the day of or the day after. It was a cozy night and we were lazing in front of the television trying to decide what to watch. Netflix was pushing A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby, and because it promised to be frothy and cozy, I suggested the first of the series — A Christmas Prince. It was cheesy and got us talking about classic Christmas movies and what we’d seen and what we hadn’t.

We made some idle plans to watch more Christmas movies. That same winter there was a BBC dark fantasy version of A Christmas Carol that I watched. In all, we watched eight or nine Christmas movies between Christmas eve and a few days after the start of the new year.

In a different timeline that was the end of it. But in this timeline, 2020 was a very special year.

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around in 2020 we were conditioned to stay inside. Covid deaths were high and there was a lot of uncertainty when and if a vaccine might be rolled out. Recalling the coziness of the previous year’s Christmas movie watching, combined with our past experience of immersing ourselves in particular genres or styles of movies, we decided to go all in on Christmas movies and Christmas shows.

It was a lot of fun. (Remember, we have a remarkable tolerance for cringe-inducing schlock.)

We watched about 40 movies between Thanksgiving and Epiphany (12 days after Christmas). And about 10 or 12 shows/episodes.

An aside. I grew up in a place with snow. As a child I built snowmen and lived through blizzards. One memorable winter, wind blew snow against the front of the house creating a drift that reached the roof. We had to exit through the back until we dug out the front door.

Here, in the semi-tropical weather of Florida, there are none of the environmental triggers I learned to associate with winter or Christmas. And so, Christmas time in Florida is weird to me. How can there be Christmas lights, Christmas music, AND I’m walking through the neighborhood in shorts and a t-shirt? It feels alien and wrong.

Watching Christmas movies helped Florida feel a little more winter-y, a little cozier in a time when we craved comfort and coziness.

So, we did it again in 2021.

This year will be our 5th year of Christmas movie/show binging. To this point we’ve watched approximately 235 shows and movies. Last year we watched about sixty shows/movies. So, if we do something similar this year, we’ll be pushing 300 by the time we wrap up in 2025.

That’s a lot of Christmas movies!

Here is a list of what we watched in the winter of 2020. I’ll post the entire list of 2019-2023 in a separate post. Here’s the complete list for 2019-2013.

Christmas Movie Watchlist 2020

Drama
Christmas in Connecticut (1945)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
A Christmas Carol (1951)
The Apartment (1960)
Die Hard (1988)
Scrooged (1988)
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
The Preacher’s Wife (1996)
The Family Man (2000)
Love Actually (2003)
This Christmas (2007)
A Christmas Tale (2008)
All is Bright (2013)
Ideal Home (2018)
Happiest Season (2020)
A New York Christmas Wedding (2020)

Horror
Black Christmas (1974)
You Better Watch Out (aka Christmas Evil) (1980)
Gremlins (1984)
Black Christmas (2006)
Red Christmas (2016)

Musical
Meet Me in Saint Louis (1944)
White Christmas (1954)
Scrooge (1970)
Anna & the Apocalypse (2017)

Comedy
The Great Rupert (1950)
Mixed Nuts (1994)
Elf (2003)
The Night Before (2015)
Cup of Cheer (2020)
Holidate (2020)
Letters to Satan Claus (2020)

Hallmark Style
Christmas Inheritance (2017)
A Christmas Movie Christmas (2019)
The Christmas House (2020)
The Christmas Set-up (2020)
Dashing in December (2020)

Variety Shows
A Very Murray Christmas (2015)
The Jinkx and Dela Christmas Show (2020)

Cartoon / Animations
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
Klaus (2019)

Television Shows / Episodes
The Librarians and Santa’s Midnight Run (2014)
Last Tango in Halifax Christmas Special (2017)
Dash & Lily (2020)
Great British Baking Show: Holidays (2020)
Home for Christmas Season 2 (2020)

Replenished

The combination of the beginning of the semester, two hurricanes, and an anxiety-provoking election season left me feeling I was done with My Gothic Body. However, I’m now feeling much refreshed and have started back up on the writing. Looking forward to the long weekend.

The zero draft of My Gothic Body is about 10,000 words. I’m going to add another braid about representations of masculinity in mid-1970s television. In an utterly non-trivial way television shaped the way I understand what it means to be a man. Some representations I adopted, some I rejected, but all the TV men I watched helped shape the way I recognize the boundaries, parameters, and meaning of manhood.

It’s these ideas of masculinity (among others), ghosts, intangible forces that haunt my experience, that shape my reality, and contributed to the way I approach(ed) my health, which led to the kidney stone operations.

So, as I pursue this new draft I might drop some sections into the blog. Or not.

I’ve also decided to join Bluesky. Partly to see if judicious addition of a well-curated social media feed can help me navigate whatever is to come. (lol, or to see if I can find a way to distract me from writing!) I’m @patadave.bsky.social.

How did that whole ‘Gothic year’ turn out?

It turned out OK. I have a ton of notes, read a bunch of classic Gothic novels, closely annotated Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and started incorporating it into a longer work about my relation with my body. I’ve started piecing it all together into a longer project and with any luck I’ll start sharing chunks of it in the next couple of months.

Well, that was unfortunate

I want to do something with all this malevolent energy burbling up, might as well blog! This round I think I’m going to shoot for quantity over quality. And, I want to do more short posts about the random stuff bouncing around in my skull, and less pointing to stuff on the internet.

Don’t forget to stay hydrated, move your body, get away from the screen. If you don’t meditate or do yoga, now might be a good time to start incorporating those practices into your routine. Connect with friends and allies. Allow yourself time to feel grief and anger. Despair is a rational response.

“I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.” —Toni Morrison

Two Gothic Birth Scenes

In his biography of William Godwin, William St. Clair suggests the following passage from St. Leon is Godwin writing about the birth of Mary Shelley. So much to unpack!

“At length the critical period arrives, when an event so extraordinary occurs, as cannot fail to put the human frame in considerable jeopardy. Never shall I forget the interview between us immediately subsequent to her first parturition, the effusion of soul with which we met each other after all danger seemed to have subsided, the kindness which animated us, increased as it was by ideas of peril and suffering, the sacred sensation with which the mother presented her infant to her husband, or the complacency with which we read in each other’s eyes a common sentiment of melting tenderness and inviolable attachment!

“This, she seemed to say, is the joint result of our common affection. It partakes equally of both, and is the shrine in which our sympathies and our life have been poured together, never to be separated. Let other lovers testify their engagements by presents and tokens; we record and stamp our attachment in this precious creature, a creature of that species which is more admirable than any thing else the world has to boast, a creature susceptible of pleasure and pain, of affection and love, of sentiment and fancy, of wisdom and virtue. This creature will daily stand in need of an aid we shall delight to afford; will require our meditations and exertions to forward its improvement, and confirm its merits and its worth. We shall each blend our exertions, for that purpose, and our union, confirmed by this common object of our labour and affection, will every day become more sacred and indissoluble.—All this the present weakness of my beloved Marguerite would not allow her to say. But all this occurred to my reflections; and, when we had time tranquilly to compare our recollection of the event, it plainly appeared that in all this our hearts and conceptions had most truly sympathised.

“The possessing a third object, a common centre of anxiety to both, is far from weakening the regard of such a couple for each other. It does not separate or divert them; it is a new link of connection. Each is attached to it the more for the sake of either; each regards it as a sort of branch or scion, representing the parent; each rejoices in its health, its good humour, its smiles, its increase in size, in strength, and in faculties, principally from the idea of the gratification they will communicate to the other. Were it not for this idea, were it possible the pleasure should not be mutual, the sentiment would be stripped of its principal elevation and refinement; it would be comparatively cold, selfish, solitary, and inane.

The first paragraph is very sweet. The “melting tenderness” as they gaze upon their first born.

But then, the use of “creature” and “it” to refer to the newly born infant is unsettling to modern ears. Is this a testimony to Godwin’s emotional inhibitions? Or is it simply a different norm, language from a different era and different place?

If this is indeed Godwin reflecting upon Mary Shelley’s birth, and knowing that Mary Wollenstonecraft will be dead within a week (and that this passage truly reflects sincere feelings about the birth of his first child), then the third paragraph takes a dark and haunting turn. The joy of the baby is in the sharing; the sharing of creation, the sharing of responsibility, the sharing of love. Without this shared sentiment then a single parent is confronted with a world that is “cold, selfish, solitary, and inane,” a phrase that seems to aptly capture Godwin’s parenting style.

Mary Shelley writes about the birth of Frankenstein’s creature.

“It was on a dreary night of November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet. It was already one in the morning; the rain pattered dismally against the panes, and my candle was nearly burnt out, when, by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.

“How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips.

“The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. For this I had deprived myself of rest and health. I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.”

“The beauty of the dream vanished.” Echoes of St. Leon. The dream of a child as a source of joy evaporates for both Godwin’s St. Leon and Shelley’s Frankenstein. Frankenstein removes himself from his child, instead of feeling connected to the new life, he feels “breathless horror and disgust.”

I haven’t taken a deep dive yet into the critical studies of Frankenstein, so I don’t know what others have written about the creature as an analog for Mary Shelley. My reading, however, suggests that Mary is often writing about herself when she is writing about the creature. Not necessarily autobiographically, but that she uses her experience to inform the experience of the creature. In many ways she is writing about the experience of women when she is writing about the experience of the creature. Perhaps in another world Frankenstein was subtitled: A Vindication of the Rights of Monsters.

The Elegy

I assumed an elegy was a lament for the dead; a sermon or poem to recognize the unique loss and the tragedy of permanent absence. I was wrong! (Well, and also right.) Early definitions of elegy described a certain form. Rhyming couplets in a certain rhythmic pattern. Elegies from the classical era might be about death but could also be erotic or tell a tale of myth.

Only when the English started writing elegiac poetry did it become closely associated with mourning.

In the 17th century some English poets still wrote elegies in the broadest sense. It looks like it was after the English Civil Wars and the Restoration that the English elegy became almost exclusively about commemorating death or tragedy.

Just as Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto was a pivotal point in the development of the Gothic, so was Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

Coincidentally, Gray and Walpole were close friends, touring Europe together for a couple of years. More about their relationship in a future post.

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow’r,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave,
Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

excerpt from Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray.

Democritus, Jr.

In an earlier post I mentioned the motif of Democritus as the laughing philosopher and Heraclitus as the weeping philosopher. Reading about the melancholy English poetry of the 18th century I was reminded of Robert Burton’s use of Democritus in Anatomy of Melancholy (published in 1621). Burton, a Democritus fan, wrote his work under the pseudonym Democritus, Jr. However, he sees Democritus as melancholic rather than mirthful (though he does note that Democritus “laugh[s] heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects” he sees in town). So, perhaps, melancholy AND mirthful.

Here’s Burton’s description of Democritus, lightly edited for readability.

“Democritus, as he is described by Hippocrates and Laertius, was a little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in his latter days, and much given to solitariness, a famous philosopher in his age, coaevus [contemporary] with Socrates, wholly addicted to his studies at the last, and to a private life: wrote many excellent works, a great divine, according to the divinity of those times, an expert physician, a politician, an excellent mathematician, as Diacosmus and the rest of his works do witness.

“He was much delighted with the studies of husbandry, saith Columella, and often I find him cited by Constantinus and others treating of that subject. He knew the natures, differences of all beasts, plants, fishes, birds; and, as some say, could understand the tunes and voices of them. In a word, he was omnifariam doctus, a general scholar, a great student; and to the intent he might better contemplate, I find it related by some, that he put out his eyes, and was in his old age voluntarily blind, yet saw more than all Greece besides, and writ of every subject, Nihil in toto opificio naturae, de quo non scripsit [Google translate: There is nothing in the whole work of nature of which he has not written].

“A man of an excellent wit, profound conceit; and to attain knowledge the better in his younger years, he travelled to Egypt and Athens, to confer with learned men, “admired of some, despised of others.” After a wandering life, he settled at Abdera, a town in Thrace, and was sent for thither to be their lawmaker, recorder, or town-clerk, as some will; or as others, he was there bred and born. Howsoever it was, there he lived at last in a garden in the suburbs, wholly betaking himself to his studies and a private life, “saving that sometimes he would walk down to the haven,” “and laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects, which there he saw.”

“Such a one was Democritus.”

Reading this reminds me of a genre of poetry I learned about in my recent reading. The “retirement” poem. These are works yearning for a quiet semi-rural life spent contemplating nature, pursuing scholarly interests, mostly in solitude but with a few good friends nearby. There are many variations of this trope, mostly restating something Martial wrote sometime in the first century CE.

The things that make a life of happiness,
most delightful Martial, are these:
property not produced by labour, but bequeathed;
a field that is not unyielding, a perennial fire;
never a lawsuit, a toga rarely worn, a mind at peace;
the strength of a gentleman, a healthy body;
sensible candour, well-matched friends;
easy company, a table without ornament;
a night not drunken, but free from cares;
a bed not sorrowful, but nevertheless chaste;
sleep, so as to make the night short:
wish to be what you are, and prefer nothing;
do not fear the final day, and do not long for it.

Poetry of the Graveyard

Where am I in the Gothic research?

I’m in the midst of a deep dive in English elegiac poetry of the early 18th century. Long before these symbols and allusions were distilled into a Gothic spirit, English poetry was haunted with ruins and graveyards, melancholy and ghosts.

Depending on which history or critic you are reading this kind of poetry is described as melancholy or pensive. It is often elegiac. And, contemporaneously, much of it is grouped under the umbrella of graveyard poetry, or the graveyard school. Some of it may have had direct influence on the Gothic literature but all of it contributed to a tone, or sensibility, that was embraced and heightened by the Gothic authors.

My Fancy palls, and takes Distast[e] at Pleasure;
My Soul grows out of Tune, it loaths the World,
Sickens at all the Noise and Folly of it;
And I could sit me down in some dull Shade,
Where lonely Contemplation keeps her Cave,
And dwells with hoary Hermits; there forget my self,
There fix my stupid Eyes upon the Earth,
And muse a way an Age in deepest Melancholy.

The tragedy of the Lady Jane Gray by Nicholas Rowe
a play in verse
published in 1715

One thing that stands out in this research is how transgressive poetry could be during this era as long as it ended with some sort of exultation of faith. You could write all sorts of horrid scenes as long as you ended with a warning that such moral transgressions would be punished, or that embracing the Christian faith would free one from the horrors described. The Gothic lit of the 1790s (and later) simply did away with the moralizing frame (for the most part) and piled up the frightful imagery. Long before Elmore Leonard the Gothic authors embraced his advice to writers to “leave out the parts that readers skip.”

Here is an an example of early 18th-century melancholy English poetry. Lady Chudleigh describes a melancholy life but reveals in the final sentence that everything will ok because the devout will awaken in heaven after death.

On the Vanities of this Life: A Pindarick Ode
by Lady Mary Chudleigh
published 1703

1.

What makes fond Man the trifle Life desire,
And with such Ardor court his Pain?
‘Tis Madness, worse than Madness, to admire
What brings Ten thousand Miseries in its Train:
To each soft moment, Hours of Care succeed,
And for the Pleasures of a Day,
With Years of Grief we pay;
So much our lasting Sorrows, our fleeting Joys exceed.
In vain, in vain, we Happiness pursue,
That mighty Blessing is not here;
That, like the false misguiding Fire,
Is farthest off, when we believe it near:
Yet still we follow till we tire,
And in the fatal Chase Expire:
Each gaudy nothing which we view,
We fancy is the wish’d for Prize,
Its painted Glories captivate our Eyes;
Blinded by Pride, we hug our own Mistake,
And foolishly adore that Idol which we make.

2.

Some hope to find it on the Coasts of Fame,
And hazard all to gain a glorious Name;
Proud of Deformity and Scars,
They seek for Honour in the bloodiest Wars;
On Dangers, unconcern’d, they run,
And Death it self disdain to shun:
This, the Rich with Wonder see,
And fancy they are happier far
Than those deluded Heroes are:
But this, alas! is their Mistake;
They only dream that they are blest,
For when they from their pleasing Slumbers wake,
They’ll find their Minds with Swarms of Cares opprest,
So crouded, that no part is free
To entertain Felicity:
The Pain to get, and Fear to lose,
Like Harpies, all their Joys devour:
Who such a wretched Life wou’d chuse?
Or think those happy who must Fortune trust?
That fickle Goddess is but seldom just.
Exterior things can ne’er be truly good,
Because within her Pow’r;
This the wise Ancients understood,
And only wish’d for what wou’d Life sustain;
Esteeming all beyond superfluous and vain.

3.

Some think the Great are only blest,
Those God-like Men who shine above the rest:
In whom united Glories meet,
And all the lower World pay Homage at their Feet:
On their exalted Heights they sit in State,
And their Commands bind like the Laws of Fate:
Their Regal Scepters, and their glitt’ring Crowns,
Imprint an awful Fear in ev’ry Breast:
Death shoots his killing Arrows thro’ their Frowns;
Their Smiles are welcom, as the Beams of Light
Were to the infant World, when first it rose from Night.
Thus, in the Firmament of Pow’r above,
Each in his radiant Sphere does move,
Remote from common View;
Th’ admiring Croud with Wonder gaze,
The distant Glories their weak Eyes amaze:
But cou’d they search into the Truth of Things,
Cou’d they but look into the Thoughts of Kings;
If all their hidden Cares they knew,
Their Jealousies, their Fears, their Pain,
And all the Troubles of their Reign,
They then wou’d pity those they now admire;
And with their humble State content, wou’d nothing more desire.

4.

If any thing like Happiness is here,
If any thing deserves our Care,
‘Tis only by the Good possest;
By those who Virtue’s Laws obey,
And cheerfully proceed in her unerring Way;
Whose Souls are cleans’d from all the Dregs of Sin,
From all the base Alloys of their inferior Part,
And fit to harbour that Celestial Guest,
Who ne’r will be confin’d
But to a holy Breast.
The pure and spotless Mind,
Has all within
That the most boundless Wish can crave;
The most aspiring Temper hope to have:
Nor needs the Helps of Art,
Nor vain Supplies of Sense,
Assur’d of all in only Innocence.

5.

Malice and Envy, Discontent, and Pride,
Those fatal Inmates of the Vicious Mind,
Which into dang’rous Paths th’ unthinking Guide,
Ne’er to the pious Breast admittance find.
As th’ upper Region is Serene and clear,
No Winds, no Clouds are there,
So with perpetual Calms the virtuous Soul is blest,
Those Antepasts of everlasting Rest:
Like some firm Rock amidst the raging Waves
She stands, and their united Force outbraves;
Contends, till from her Earthly Shackles free,
She takes her flight
Into immense Eternity,
And in those Realms of unexhausted Light,
Forgets the Pressures of her former State.
O’er-joy’d to find her self beyond the reach of Fate.

6.

O happy Place! where ev’ry thing will please,
Where neither Sickness, Fear, nor Strife,
Nor any of the painful Cares of Life,
Will interrupt her Ease:
Where ev’ry Object charms the Sight,
And yields fresh Wonder and Delight,
Where nothing’s heard but Songs of Joy,
Full of Extasie Divine,
Seraphick Hymns! which Love inspire,
And fill the Breast with sacred Fire:
Love refin’d from drossy Heat,
Rais’d to a Flame sublime and great,
In ev’ry Heav’nly Face do’s shine,
And each Celestial Tongue employ:
What e’er we can of Friendship know,
What e’er we Passion call below,
Does but a weak Resemblance bear,
To that blest Union which is ever there,
Where Love, like Life, do’s animate the whole,
As if it were but one blest individual Soul.

7.

Such as a lasting Happiness would have,
Must seek it in the peaceful Grave,
Where free from Wrongs the Dead remain.
Life is a long continu’d Pain,
A lingring slow Disease.
Which Remedies a while may ease,
But cannot work a perfect Cure:
Musick with its inchanting Lays,
May for a while our Spirits raise,
Honour and Wealth may charm the Sense,
And by their pow’rful Influence
May gently lull our Cares asleep;
But when we think our selves secure,
And fondly hope we shall no future Ills endure,
Our Griefs awake again,
And with redoubl’d Rage augment our Pain:
In vain we stand on our Defence,
In vain a constant Watch we keep,
In vain each Path we guard;
Unseen into our Souls they creep,
And when they once are there, ’tis very hard
With all our Strength to force them thence;
Like bold Intruders on the whole they seize,
A Part will not th’ insatiate Victors please.

8.

In vain, alas! in vain,
We Reason’s Aid implore,
That will but add a quicker Sense of Pain,
But not our former Joys restore:
Those few who by strict Rules their Lives have led,
Who Reason’s Laws attentively have read;
Who to its Dictates glad Submission pay,
And by their Passions never led astray,
Go resolutely on in its severest Way,
Could never solid Satisfaction find:
The most that Reason can, is to persuade the Mind,
Its Troubles decently to bear,
And not permit a Murmur, or a Tear,
To tell th’ inquiring World that any such are there:
But while we strive our Suff’rings to disown,
And blush to have our Frailties known;
While from the publick View our Griefs we hide,
And keep them Pris’ners in our Breast,
We seem to be, but are not truly blest;
What like Contentment looks, is but th’ Effect of Pride:
From it we no advantage win,
But are the same we were before,
The smarting Pains corrode us still within;
Confinement do’s but make them rage the more:
Upon the vital Stock they prey,
And by insensible degrees they wast our Life away.

9.

In vain from Books we hope to gain Relief,
Knowledge does but increase our Grief:
The more we read, the more we find
Of th’ unexhausted Store still left behind:
To dig the wealthy Mine we try,
No Pain, no Labour spare;
But the lov’d Treasure too profound does lie,
And mocks our utmost Industry:
Like some inchanted Isle it does appear;
The pleas’d Spectator thinks it near;
But when with wide spread Sails he makes to shore,
His Hopes are lost, the Phantom’s seen no more:
Asham’d, and tir’d, we of Success despair,
Our fruitless Studies we repent,
And blush to see, that after all our Care,
After whole Years on tedious Volumes spent,
We only darkly understand
That which we thought we fully knew;
Thro’ Labyrinths we go without a Clue,
Till in the dang’rous Maze our selves we lose,
And neither know which Path t’avoid, or which to chuse.
From Thought to Thought, our restless Minds are tost,
Like Ship-wreck’d Mariners we seek the Land,
And in a Sea of Doubts are almost lost.
The Phœnix Truth wrapt up in Mists does lie,
Not to be clearly seen before we die;
Not till our Souls free from confining Clay,
Open their Eyes in everlasting Day.