I rose at the dead of night,
And went to the lattice alone
To look for my mother’s ghost
Where the ghostly moonlight shone.

My friends had failed one by one,
Middle-aged, young, and old,
Till the ghosts were warmer to me
Than my friends that had grown cold.

I looked and I saw the ghosts
Dotting plain and mound:
They stood in the blank moonlight,
But no shadow lay on the ground:
They spoke without a voice
And they leaped without a sound.

I called: ‘O my Mother dear,’–
I sobbed: ‘O my Mother kind,
Make a lonely bed for me
And shelter it from the wind.

‘Tell the others not to come
To see me night or day:
But I need not tell my friends
To be sure to keep away.’

My Mother raised her eyes,
They were blank and could not see:
Yet they held me with their stare
While they seemed to look at me.

She opened her mouth and spoke;
I could not hear a word,
While my flesh crept on my bones
And every hair was stirred.

She knew that I could not hear
The message that she told
Whether I had long to wait
Or soon should sleep in the mould.
I saw her toss her shadowless hair
And wring her hands in the cold.

I strained to catch her words,
And she strained to make me hear;
But never a sound of words
Fell on my straining ear.

From midnight to the cockcrow
I kept my watch in pain
While the subtle ghosts grew subtler
In the sad night on the wane

From midnight to the cockcrow
I watched till all were gone,
Some to sleep in the shifting sea
And some under turf and stone:
Living had failed and dead had failed,
And I was indeed alone.

–Christina Rossetti

‘Twas in the middle of the night,
To sleep young William tried,
When Mary’s ghost came stealing in,
And stood at his bed-side.

2.
O William dear! O William dear!
My rest eternal ceases;
Alas! my everlasting peace
Is broken into pieces.

3.
I thought the last of all my cares
Would end with my last minute;
But tho’ I went to my long home,
I didn’t stay long in it.

4.
The body-snatchers they have come,
And made a snatch at me;
It’s very hard them kind of men
Won’t let a body be!

5.
You thought that I was buried deep
Quite decent like and chary,
But from her grave in Mary-bone
They come and boned your Mary.

6.
The arm that used to take your arm
Is took to Dr. Vyse;
And both my legs are gone to walk
The hospital at Guy’s.

7.
I vow’d that you should have my hand,
But fate gives us denial;
You’ll find it there, at Dr. Bell’s,
In spirits and a phial.

8.
As for my feet, the little feet
You used to call so pretty,
There’s one, I know, in Bedford Row,
The t’other’s in the city.

9.
I can’t tell you where my head is gone,
But Doctor Carpue can:
As for my trunk, it’s all packed up
To go by Pickford’s van.

10.
I wish you’d go to Mr. P.
And save me such a ride;
I don’t half like the outside place,
They’ve took for my inside.

11.
The cock it crows–I must begone!
My William we must part!
But I’ll be yours in death altho’
Sir Astley has my heart.

12.
Don’t go to weep upon my grave,
And think that there I be;
They haven’t left an atom there
Of my anatomie.

–Thomas Hood

A virtuous man, travelling with his wife and family, stopped at an inn a large section of which was locked up and disused because it was haunted by a Yao Kuei. The traveller offered to stay up all night and destroy the ghost, and sitting fearlessly, sword in hand, at about midnight, was confronted by a venerable old gentleman with a long white beard. The armed man rose to his feet, accused the newcomer of being an evil demon and made ready to slay him. The old man smiled and explained that he was not not a Kuei, but the guardian spirit of the district, and had called in person to thank the traveller for his kindness–’Your arrival has disposed of the Yao Kuei…but should they return before morning, have at them with your sword!’ The old gentleman departed and the traveller remained on guard. Soon, a strange black-faced creature entered the room–he struck off its head. Later he had the same experience with a white-faced creature; and so it continued at intervals till cock-crow, when he called the people of the inn to witness his victory. Each brought a lantern and the haunted room was soon filled with light. The walls were splashed and the floor streaming with blood, and there in a heap lay the decapitated corpses of the traveller’s wife, children, and servants. ‘The Yao Kuei has tricked me!’ he cried, and fell dead.

Chinese folk tale, in A Survey of the Occult by John Franklyn, 1935.