For Halloween 2025, Words That Burn resurrects one of the most chilling poems in English literature: "This Living Hand" by John Keats. This short, macabre poem wasn't published until 77 years after Keats's death, making it feel like a genuine message from beyond the grave.

In this special episode, we explore the poem's dark, gothic imagery and the terrifying "strange bargain" it offers the reader. We dissect its uncanny duality, its sense of dread, and the horrifying biographical context of Keats's final days; a "posthumous existence" of body horror that forged this masterpiece.

I look at the poem's vampiric mechanism and Keats's desperate plea, not only for a transfusion of life, but for the artistic immortality he feared he'd never achieve.

This episode covers:

• The dark history of Keats's "This Living Hand."
• How Keats's embrace of darkness ("the burden of mystery") set him apart from other Romantic poets.
• A close reading of the poem's body horror, from "earnest grasping" to the "icy silence of the tomb."
• The link between Keats's final, agonising days and the poem's "vampiric" plea for life.
• Why this poem is a perfect, terrifying read for the Halloween season.

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The Music In This Week's Episode:

'Soul Searcher' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au

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