Ruins of Despair
@ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
A weary pilgrim on the grave of the Romantic Hero, a forlorn eulogist cast upon the desolate shore of the exquisite agony that is The Gothic.
#books #gothic #romanticism
'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' (P.B. Shelley)
#books #gothic #romanticism
'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' (P.B. Shelley)
Pinned
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.
– Lord Byron
– Lord Byron
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
Edward Steichen, American (1879-1973), Flatiron Building, 1904-05, three-color halftone print, printed 1906, 21.6 x 16.5 cm, private collection
November 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Edward Steichen, American (1879-1973), Flatiron Building, 1904-05, three-color halftone print, printed 1906, 21.6 x 16.5 cm, private collection
What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery?
– Mary Shelley, The Last Man
#gothic #scifisaturday #books #booksky 🪐📚
– Mary Shelley, The Last Man
#gothic #scifisaturday #books #booksky 🪐📚
November 22, 2025 at 12:10 PM
What is there in our nature that is for ever urging us on towards pain and misery?
– Mary Shelley, The Last Man
#gothic #scifisaturday #books #booksky 🪐📚
– Mary Shelley, The Last Man
#gothic #scifisaturday #books #booksky 🪐📚
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
November 22, 2025 at 11:01 AM
"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration;"
- Wordsworth
#BookWormSat #poetry #RomanticPoets #poetrysky
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
November Night
"Listen …
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall"
Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1915 ), inventor of the cinquain: a 22 syllable, 5 line poem
🎨 November
Benjamin Haughton (1865–1924)
#BookWormSat
"Listen …
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall"
Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1915 ), inventor of the cinquain: a 22 syllable, 5 line poem
🎨 November
Benjamin Haughton (1865–1924)
#BookWormSat
November 22, 2025 at 11:09 AM
November Night
"Listen …
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall"
Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1915 ), inventor of the cinquain: a 22 syllable, 5 line poem
🎨 November
Benjamin Haughton (1865–1924)
#BookWormSat
"Listen …
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp’d, break from the trees
And fall"
Adelaide Crapsey (1878-1915 ), inventor of the cinquain: a 22 syllable, 5 line poem
🎨 November
Benjamin Haughton (1865–1924)
#BookWormSat
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
‘The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.’ ~ E Brontë #BookWormSat
🖼️Pekka Halonen
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.’ ~ E Brontë #BookWormSat
🖼️Pekka Halonen
November 22, 2025 at 11:24 AM
‘The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.’ ~ E Brontë #BookWormSat
🖼️Pekka Halonen
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.
The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.’ ~ E Brontë #BookWormSat
🖼️Pekka Halonen
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
You're so dead, you probably think this obituary is about you.
November 22, 2025 at 4:41 AM
You're so dead, you probably think this obituary is about you.
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -no dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease …
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds!
November!
Thomas Hood
November 1844
#BookWormSat 🍂
No morn - no noon -no dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease …
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds!
November!
Thomas Hood
November 1844
#BookWormSat 🍂
November 22, 2025 at 6:43 AM
No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -no dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease …
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds!
November!
Thomas Hood
November 1844
#BookWormSat 🍂
No morn - no noon -no dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease …
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, no fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds!
November!
Thomas Hood
November 1844
#BookWormSat 🍂
In 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751), Thomas Gray first falls into rural reverie in a crepuscular graveyard, then laments the inequalities of society, and finally resigns himself to death.
Well, that escalated quickly.
#BookWormSat #poetry #romanticism #books #booksky
Well, that escalated quickly.
#BookWormSat #poetry #romanticism #books #booksky
November 22, 2025 at 6:07 AM
In 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' (1751), Thomas Gray first falls into rural reverie in a crepuscular graveyard, then laments the inequalities of society, and finally resigns himself to death.
Well, that escalated quickly.
#BookWormSat #poetry #romanticism #books #booksky
Well, that escalated quickly.
#BookWormSat #poetry #romanticism #books #booksky
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
William S Marriott aka stage magician Dr Wilmar was a dedicated debunker of fake spiritualist mediums in the early 1900's who staged a series of photographs demonstrating spirit trickery. Ghost sleuth Harry Price (1881-1948) later used these images of Marriott when giving talks.
November 21, 2025 at 11:07 PM
William S Marriott aka stage magician Dr Wilmar was a dedicated debunker of fake spiritualist mediums in the early 1900's who staged a series of photographs demonstrating spirit trickery. Ghost sleuth Harry Price (1881-1948) later used these images of Marriott when giving talks.
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
'Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk, in fear & dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on,
And turns no more his head
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.' Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Art: John Atkinson Grimshaw.🖤
Doth walk, in fear & dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on,
And turns no more his head
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.' Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Art: John Atkinson Grimshaw.🖤
November 21, 2025 at 12:12 AM
'Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk, in fear & dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on,
And turns no more his head
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.' Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Art: John Atkinson Grimshaw.🖤
Doth walk, in fear & dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on,
And turns no more his head
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.' Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Art: John Atkinson Grimshaw.🖤
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
November 21, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
This drawing by John Hookham from Harry Price's 'Poltergeists Over England' is intended to illustrate that poltergeist activity often centres round young girls. But I find it an especially creepy image. One can almost imagine the girl turning round to welcome it...
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
November 21, 2025 at 2:53 PM
This drawing by John Hookham from Harry Price's 'Poltergeists Over England' is intended to illustrate that poltergeist activity often centres round young girls. But I find it an especially creepy image. One can almost imagine the girl turning round to welcome it...
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
#PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts
November 21, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
November 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
Ghost is sorrow in Wordsworth's 'Lucy Gray', 1799.
William heard the story from his sister: Near Halifax, a young girl lost her way in a snow-storm. The parents traced her footsteps in the snow to the middle of the lock of a canal, where they stopped.
#PhantomsFriday #poetry #romanticism #booksky
William heard the story from his sister: Near Halifax, a young girl lost her way in a snow-storm. The parents traced her footsteps in the snow to the middle of the lock of a canal, where they stopped.
#PhantomsFriday #poetry #romanticism #booksky
November 21, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Ghost is sorrow in Wordsworth's 'Lucy Gray', 1799.
William heard the story from his sister: Near Halifax, a young girl lost her way in a snow-storm. The parents traced her footsteps in the snow to the middle of the lock of a canal, where they stopped.
#PhantomsFriday #poetry #romanticism #booksky
William heard the story from his sister: Near Halifax, a young girl lost her way in a snow-storm. The parents traced her footsteps in the snow to the middle of the lock of a canal, where they stopped.
#PhantomsFriday #poetry #romanticism #booksky
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
Walter Linsley Meegan (British, 1859–1944)
"Trees by Moonlight", 1883.
Oil on Canvas, 45 × 34 cm.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
"Trees by Moonlight", 1883.
Oil on Canvas, 45 × 34 cm.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
November 20, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Walter Linsley Meegan (British, 1859–1944)
"Trees by Moonlight", 1883.
Oil on Canvas, 45 × 34 cm.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
"Trees by Moonlight", 1883.
Oil on Canvas, 45 × 34 cm.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #painters #BlueSkyArt
Lord Byron had cup made out of a monk's skull found on the grounds of his home, Newstead Abbey.
It could hold an entire bottle of claret, and was passed around 'in imitation of the Goths of old', among the Order of the Skull that Byron had founded at Newstead.
#BookologyThursday #gothic #booksky
It could hold an entire bottle of claret, and was passed around 'in imitation of the Goths of old', among the Order of the Skull that Byron had founded at Newstead.
#BookologyThursday #gothic #booksky
November 20, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Lord Byron had cup made out of a monk's skull found on the grounds of his home, Newstead Abbey.
It could hold an entire bottle of claret, and was passed around 'in imitation of the Goths of old', among the Order of the Skull that Byron had founded at Newstead.
#BookologyThursday #gothic #booksky
It could hold an entire bottle of claret, and was passed around 'in imitation of the Goths of old', among the Order of the Skull that Byron had founded at Newstead.
#BookologyThursday #gothic #booksky
Ecstasy only smiles — despair laughs.
– Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820
#WorldPhilosophyDay #gothic #books #booksky
– Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820
#WorldPhilosophyDay #gothic #books #booksky
November 20, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Ecstasy only smiles — despair laughs.
– Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820
#WorldPhilosophyDay #gothic #books #booksky
– Charles Robert Maturin, Melmoth the Wanderer 1820
#WorldPhilosophyDay #gothic #books #booksky
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
Bushes in the snow, Caspar David Friedrich, c.1827.
November 20, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Bushes in the snow, Caspar David Friedrich, c.1827.
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
"Deserted. Drawn By S. Read."
The Illustrated London News 21.12.1872.
There is a raven!
#WyrdWednesday #Art #1870s
The Illustrated London News 21.12.1872.
There is a raven!
#WyrdWednesday #Art #1870s
November 19, 2025 at 10:43 AM
"Deserted. Drawn By S. Read."
The Illustrated London News 21.12.1872.
There is a raven!
#WyrdWednesday #Art #1870s
The Illustrated London News 21.12.1872.
There is a raven!
#WyrdWednesday #Art #1870s
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
The bride wore ectoplasm.........
November 18, 2025 at 9:06 PM
The bride wore ectoplasm.........
Reposted by Ruins of Despair
long line of trees
#photography #monochrome #ClassicMono #bnw #blackandwhite #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin
#photography #monochrome #ClassicMono #bnw #blackandwhite #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin
November 18, 2025 at 8:58 PM
long line of trees
#photography #monochrome #ClassicMono #bnw #blackandwhite #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin
#photography #monochrome #ClassicMono #bnw #blackandwhite #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin
In Finnish mythology the sacred white Swan of Tuoni swims in the black river of the underworld.
#WyrdWednesday #folklore #epic #Kalevala
#WyrdWednesday #folklore #epic #Kalevala
November 19, 2025 at 9:08 AM
In Finnish mythology the sacred white Swan of Tuoni swims in the black river of the underworld.
#WyrdWednesday #folklore #epic #Kalevala
#WyrdWednesday #folklore #epic #Kalevala