All: The section you're in right now, displays everything on the page as a single list, including the descriptions of other sections.
Fanfiction: Fanworks of other media. The vast majority of this is Danny Phantom related, but series derived from other sources are scattered throughout.
Webnovels: Original fiction published on the internet. Can be oddly distinct from the kind of thing you would normally find on a shelf.
Books: Any works published more professionally, usually with some kind of tangible version of the media that can be easily obtained through a major retailer or other outlet.
Nonhuman Protagonist: I love nonhuman protagonists, but have historically had difficulty finding well curated lists featuring this trope. Everything is either a huge mess, too limited, or just not to my tastes. This list exists to help me keep track of the good ones I've found over the years.
Note:While some of the works here should technically count as a nonhuman protagonist (for example, every Danny Phantom fanfiction on the list. The protagonist is canonically half ghost.) I've only really tagged those works where it either features prominantly or is a major part of the theme/plot.
Finished: Completed Stories
Unfinished: Incomplete stories (as of the last time I checked/got around to updating things)
Comics: Any story told via a pictographic medium. Manga, comics, manhwa, ect are all lumped together here.
It's been so long since my graphic novel phase, that I only remember the ones that truly stuck out.
A list of my favorite poems, in no particular order.
Due to how short most of these works are, I've taken the liberty of directly transferring some of these directly to the site, though links are still provided, should you want to see the source.
Grendel, by John Gardner
Nonhuman protagonist, book, finished, literary
The story of Grendel, the monster, in his own words.
Dust City, by Robert Paul Weston
Nonhuman protagonist, book, finished, young adult
Once, there were fairies, who used their magic to bless humanity. Now, they're gone. No one knows exactly where they went.
Henry Whelp isn't a human, he's a wolf. Son of the wolf, specifically, the monster who tore a little girl apart like an animal. Henry wants to put the past behind him, but he has also never stopped wondering what happened to his father, who he can't picture as a murderer, and the fairies, who he knew were planning to extend their blessing to beast kind before they dissapeared.
It will take daring, bravery, and discoveries that will rock his city to the core, but he will learn.
Demons of Astlan (Vol 1, into the abyss) by J. Langland
Nonhuman protagonist (Demon!), book, unfinished, Scifi/fantasy
Kid smokes some suspect weed, astral projects, and by a combination of bad luck and the probable machinations of a certain weed dealing demon he meets later on, gets his soul yoinked into a powerful demonic body.
Such a powerful demonic body, in fact, that no one believes him when he claims to be just some guy, and heaven and hell immidiately begin to bend themselves against this new enemy as Tom, the demon, stumbles his way into a more genuine power and finds his place among the multiverse. By hook, by crook, by awkwardly avoiding his problems until things explode in his huge, red face, Tom is all set to shake things up.
Spiderlight, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Nonhuman Protagonist, book, finished, swords and sorcery fantasy
Nth never wanted to do anything but make his mother proud. Flee fire, protect the swarm, and hunt well, he had neither desire nor interest in the world outside his woods.
He is very unhappy, then, when he is chosen as a guide to a set of intruders, who successfully threatened his mother into helping them in their goals. He is even less happy when those same intruders decide he's too hard to talk too in his natural shape, so they warp him into something else instead.
Twisted into something niether human nor spider, Nth has little choice but to follow along with the group that bound and changed him, who seek to defeat the latest in a long line of dark lords.
Repossesed, by A.M. Jenkins
Nonhuman Protagonist (Demon!), book, finished, YA
Kiriel Has been serving his time in hell ever since his wings were lost in the fall. After eons of reflecting sinner's wrongs back at them, Kiriel decides its high time he took a break.
Starting out by body jacking the hollowed out shell of a boy, Kiriel proceeds enjoy his break by trying out some sins and making as few waves as possible. He doesn't want to go back to hell any sooner than he has to, after all.
but Kiriel isn't Shaun, and the more he sees all the opportunities the boy missed, he isn't sure he wants to be.
Sinning is fun, and vacation is good, but maybe pushing for something more might be worth the risk.
Wicked Hungry, by Teddy Jacobs
Nonhuman Protagonist, book, unfinished, YA
Teddy Jacobs was always a little weird--Loose teeth during a full moon, growing and shedding hair once a month in quantities larger than anyone should, but it was never a very big deal until he accepted some shady supplements from an old aquaintence. After that, things get spooky.
As Teddy and his friends change in mind, body, and diet, they'll have to navigate an entirely new world while trying to unravel the secrets that caused the upending of their own.
Star Justice, ( Vol 1, Eye of the Tiger), by Micheal Scott Earle
Nonhuman protagonist, book, finished, sci-fi fantasy
Super soldier and were-tiger, Adam is spurred to escape his would be capters when he runs into a beautiful, telepathic vampire woman, who helps him slip the leash of his mega-corp owners and into the universe at large. With an ever expanding cadre of beautiful women and a sentient space ship at his side, Adam will face down currupt powers and ancient evils, uncovering hidden secrets as they fight to make the universe a better place.
Rogue dungeon, (Vol 1, Rogue Dungeon), by James A. Hunter
Nonhuman protagonist, book, finished, litrpg
Roark von Graaf wants revenge. For his loss, for his people, for the freedom of his nation and the world. He is determined to kill the tyrant king, and no amount of impossible odds and abberent magic is going to stop him.
After a suicidal one man-run into the tyrant king's lair goes sideways, Roark finds himself stuck in a different world with a new set of rules and a stolen artifact of incredable power. Still determined to return to his homseland, Roark will waste no time fortifying his position in this "Vrmmo" of a world. However, there are other powers at work, ones that will do their very best to stop him if they can.
Can Roark leverage his new body and powers into something lasting? Is the Tyrant King truly a world away, or will he interfere? And how is a moderator any different than a God?
Weird World War 3, edited by Sean Patrick Hazlett
Short Story collection, book, finished, mostly Sci-fi
Multple authors all take on a single theme: What if the cold war hadn't stayed so cold after all?
And what if something about that war was even spookier than the secret agents and shadow organizations fighting it out?
Alternate dimensions, demon summoning, and psychics all wait within, packed in short a short story collection for all to enjoy.
Open House on Haunted Hill, by John Wisell
short story, nonhuman protagonist, finished, supernatural
A haunted house with a heart tries to convince a single father and his child that it is a good place to move into.
Patriotism, by Yukio Mishima
Short Story, finished, fiction
A young lieutenant and his wife decide that it is time for them both to die.
The Sound and The Fury, by William Faulkner
Book, finished, fiction
The story of a family, its obsessions, and its collapse.
High School DxD, by Ichiei Ishibumi.
Book, technically he's not human but it just doesn't have the feel, finished, YA (light novel)
Issei's date was going well, right until the cute girl he thought was into him decided he needed to die.
She succeeds, but his death doesn't stick thanks to a demoness named Rias Gremory, who uses a special tool to ressurect him as a newly born demon, one obligated to serve her as a mistress.
Luckily for Issei, Rias is way cooler than that last girl, and not only is she kind hearted and strong, but she also has several other servants, with whom Issie will need to work together with (and more importantly, romance) to save all the races from certain doom.
Follow Issei and company to fame, glory, and the fulfillment of all his ridiculous dreams!
Log Horizon, by Mamare Touno
Book, finished, portal fantasy/light novel (YA)
When the latest expansion pack of a popular MMO dumps thousands of players into a real life version of their favorite game, it throws both worlds for a loop. The Japanese players are lost and confused, but with immensse power now at their fingertips, the well established natives, meanwhile, are wary of this sudden change in the balance of power.
It is up to a cautious, clever man named Shiroe, along with his closest friends to form a guild, solve the mystery of their transfer from one world to another, and help establish a functional government to manage everyone in the meantime while they search to get home.
As game logic decays, natives scheme, and everyone fight for how they think this world should be, how many friends will one socially awkward genius end up needing to make it all work?
Moshoku Tensei, by Rifujin na maganote
Book, finished, YA (light novel)
Looser pedo freak decides, just after getting kicked out of the house, to do one good deed, an act that ends up killing him for his trouble.
This is not the end for our intrepid hero, however, because soon after gettin killed, he finds himself reincarnated, memory intact, into the body of a young nobelman named Rudeus Greyrat. Handed a second chance on a silver platter, Rudeus decides to live decently, this time.
However, intect memories mean he's brought all his baggage with him into this new world, added to the creepy, smiling God lurking on the edges of reality, Rudeus' second chance might not be such a smooth ride, after all.
Dragonflight, by Ann Mcaffrey
Book, Finished, Sci-fi
Doom is coming, and few believe.
Since time immemorial, the people of pern have been ruled by the cycle of the red star, a rogue planet that drops silver, thread-like strands that instantly conume organic matter as soon as it hits the ground below. Once a thread consumes enough, it will create another thread that will consume even more.
Normally, this cycle happens every two-hundred years, but after four hundred years of thread free existence, people have begun to hope that the threat of the red star has passed for good.
Not everyone is so convinced, however, and when thread threatens the skies, it will be up to the dragon riders, psychically connected to fire breathing beasts, to burn the threat from the skies.
With their numbers depleted from centuries of neglect and the mysterious loss of all but one of the great dragon weirs just after the last threadfall, it will take everything they have and more to ensure life persists.
Staked, by JF Lewis
Book, nonhuman protagonist, urban fantasy, finished.
A vampire with memory issues, a wife who is technically the same age but is too human to look it, a best friend who is trying to kill him, and a murderous daughter who definately wants him to survive.
Eric isn't a nice guy, but he is a really good monster, and he'll use every trick his flagging mind can manage to keep his messed up family together, no matter how many demon deals he may or may not have to make along the way.
Best Bizzaro Fiction of the Decade, edited by Cameron Pierce
Book, finished, Bizzaro (weird and surrealistic fiction)
I have no good desciption for this. Basically, bizzaro fiction works like this: Do you like a genre? Would you like to see that genre put through a salvidore dali filter with some lynchian unreality sprinkled on for flavour?
Good, because that's bizzaro, and this work collects some of it's best.
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad
Book, finished, fiction
A man tells a story of his adventures in the darkest depths of Africa, his search to find one mister Kurtz, and the unhappy truths he found therein.
The Martians, by Ray Bradbury.
Book, finished, Sci-fi
A story of humans, martians, and the great red planet of mars.
Will a new world entirely be enough for mankind to escape it's foibles, or will they merely replicate all the mistakes they made before?
Catch 22, by Joseph Heller
Book, finished, fiction (black humor/parody)
Captain John Yossarian wants out of the war, but he can't get out of the war. It drives him crazy, but not crazy enough to be excused from fighting. Only a mad man would want to fight a war, after all, and anyone sane enough to want out is too sane to qualify as crazy.
Is the worst part of war really the germans, or is it the man who keeps sending you on tour after tour because he wants to be in time magazine? Or the man who was promoted to Major because he was already named Major Major, and it matched? Or is it the people you never see, the men in suits with no signage, the unknown writers of all those rules, the endless, hungry war machine, where all of them are trapped together?
The Were-wolf, by Clemence Houseman
Book, finished, fiction
It is the dark of winter, and the farm hall is warm, with more than enough room to aid the female stranger that came upon the villaige's home. But White Fell is not what she claims to be, and it is with a dark and terrible intent that this woman thing waits.
Christian, brother of Sweyn and fleetest of his kin, knows what she is, and she in turn knows that he knows.
As people begin to die, and Sweyn grows dangerously close to the lady stranger, Christian finds he has no choice but to act.
What has Eight Tenticles and isn't allowed to eat Pie? By Annie D (Scaramouche) Link Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist (for most of the fic, anyway), finished, urban Fantasy
From IMDB:
Two Brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel across the United States in a 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurances. In Continuing the "family bussiness" after their father's death, the brothers soon learn that the "hunt" doesn't just involve slashing and hacking monsters, but also dealing with more powerful creatures, such angels, reapers, and gods.
Dean fiddles with the wrong artifact, and finds himself stuck in the form of an octopus. He's fine, mostly, but acclimating to the sudden change in species, and the enforced, seafood only diet his cruel, cruel brother has inflicted on him as a result will take some getting used to.
Fortunately, a certain ex-archangel has a few tips and tricks to help him out along the way.
Display Animal Only, by Happy_Cloud Link Archive 1 Archive 2
fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist, unfinished, sci-fi/fantasy
Beggining as a comic written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spiderman tells the story of young Peter Parker, who, after getting bitten by a radioactive spider, finds himself imbued with fantastical strength, flexibility, and even the ability to climb walls! After the death of his uncle at the hands of a mugger, Peter is spurred to become a true hero, use his great power with great responsibility, and protect his hometown of New York.
After being officially adopted by Tony Stark, Things have started looking up for Peter. No longer does he need to worry about the needs of his inhuman metabolism, homelessness, or the uncertanties of foster care. What he does need to worry about, however, is the lizard living in the sewers who may or may not be his old science teacher, illicit human/animal experimentation, and his adoptive father's co-workers, not all of whom are a fan of peter and his quirks.
combine that to Black Cat adding magic to her list of tricks and his overprotective mom AI persistantly threatening to end the world if Peter gets too hurt, and it will take more than a few witty puns and extra sticky webs for Peter and his new dad to work their way out with limbs and love intact.
Stow Away, by ObsidianBlackCat Link Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist, sci-fi/fantasy
Beggining as a comic written by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Spiderman tells the story of young Peter Parker, who, after getting bitten by a radioactive spider, finds himself imbued with fantastical strength, flexibility, and even the ability to climb walls! After the death of his uncle at the hands of a mugger, Peter is spurred to become a true hero, use his great power with great responsibility, and protect his hometown of New York.
Spider-man comes back from the jungle with a hole in his memories and an accidental stow-away, a large, hyper intelligent spider. Unfortunately for Peter, the psychic bond it forms with him makes it really hard to squish. Unable to return the newly named Pheobe to her home, and very reluctant to reveal her to either New-York at large, or the not so tender care of Nick Fury and SHIELD, he resigns himself to care for her as best he can.
Which may be better than most, as it happens, because while Peter always had some spider-ish tendencies, his stint in the jungle involved a factor or two that made things worse. Spider-like urges are bad, spider like fangs, however, make highschool hell. Pheobe is happy to help, and so are his friends, but between a dissaproving aunt and his own self loathing, the difficulty bar is set a little higher than he would like.
And of course, we can't forget the villians, all of whom Peter has to juggle right along with everything else.
And who said being a teen hero was easy?
(No) More Rain, by FingersfallingupwardsLink Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, unfinished, urban fantasy and drama
(From IMDb)
High school student Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see and touch ghosts, gains soul reaper powers from Rukia Kuchiki, inheriting her duty to help the dead and defeat souls that have warped into masked monsters called "hollows."
Ichigo Kurosaki sees ghosts and gets beaten up by his dad as "training". It's normal for him, even if he knows it's not for everyone else. Ichigo also has a voice in his head and a sense of emptiness where his mom used to be, and he knows perfectly well that it goes well beyond even his family's rather flexible sense of ordinary.
He chooses to try and deal with it alone.
Flasetto Tormental, by BalimariaLink Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist, unfinished, fantasy
(From IMDB)
High school student Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see and touch ghosts, gains soul reaper powers from Rukia Kuchiki, inheriting her duty to help the dead and defeat souls that have warped into masked monsters called "hollows."
Ichigo gets stuck in his vasto lord form, stuck with all the brutal instincts of a hollow, but sane enough to be miserable about it. Will he learn to handle the urge to kill his loved ones well enough to keep living, or will he resign himself to being a basement monster underneath Urahara's shop?
There May be some Collatoral Damage, by MestiketLink Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, finished, fantasy
(From IMDB)
High school student Ichigo Kurosaki, who can see and touch ghosts, gains soul reaper powers from Rukia Kuchiki, inheriting her duty to help the dead and defeat souls that have warped into masked monsters called "hollows."
At the age of eleven, Harry Potter learns that he is a wizard, son of two famous magicians who died fighting the dark lord Voldimort, a genocidal wizard who tried to kill Harry just as he did the young boy's parents.
Not only would Voldimort fail, Voldimort would die, somehow destroying himself in an effort to murder a helpless babe.
For that accomplishment, Harry gains not only fame, but a fate fundamentally intertwined with the old dark lord, who might not be as vanquished as most of the wizarding world would like to believe.
Ichigo is forced into working as a bodyguard for some young English kid, tasked with killing an evil wizard trying to evade death, and doing so descretely.
Ichigo is capable of two of these things.
Shift, by CaptainOzoneLink Archive 1 Archive 2
fanfiction, complete, urban fantasy/slice of life
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Pariah Dark's plan to place Earth and the Ghost Zone together under his undead fist has failed, and both worlds saved by Phantom. The world was saved, but at the cost of the half-ghost's secret identity, revealed to all as a nobody from Chicago, a kid named Danny Fenton.
Now working alongside his family to make both worlds a better place, the Fentons have moved to a small town called Amity, where they plan to build a new portal into the realm of ghosts.
Massive fame as a world savior doesn't solve everything, however, and Danny struggles to deal with the uncertainty and isolation that comes with it. He likes two of the new kids he's just met, Sam and Tucker, but with an uncooperative schoolboard and a conspericy brewing in the background of the small town, Danny's happily ever after will take a while yet.
There's Something Wrong with Danny Fenton, by Perfectly_InconspicuousLink Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist, finished, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Danny is the new kid in town, and everyone knows he's creepy. Not thinks, knows, just looking into his eyes is an unsettling event, as Sam Manson finds out when she accidently makes eye contact with him while getting some things from her locker. She doesn't know what's going on, but as a goth, she isn't going to let bad vibes get in the way of being polite. And hey, who knows, once she and Tucker get to know him, he'll turn out alright.
Danny had a portal accident at the age of fourteen. All alone and inhuman in a way he can't hide, Danny has resigned himself to isolation and fear from the living. Sam and Tucker break that barrier by becoming closer to him than anyone has in years. They don't know what he is, and he's determined not to tell them, but between haunted house investigations and the persistant, ghostly threat of hostile undead, it's only a matter of time before his new friends find out there really might be something wrong with Danny Fenton, after all.
Population: 1 by Vast_Horizon Link Archive 1 Archive 2
Fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist, finished, sci-fi
(From the fandom wiki)
Five unsuspecting teenagers, transported from Earth into the middle of a sprawling intergalactic war, become pilots for five robotic lions in the battle to protect the universe from evil. Only through the true power of teamwork can they unite to form the mighty warrior known as Voltron.
Kieth has crash landed on an alien planet. With his red lion down for repairs and out of contact with the rest the group, he must survive on his own while dealing with a strange purple rash that only seems to keep spreading...
Phantom of Truth (book one) link archive and Shadow of a Doubt (book two) link archive, by Haiju.
Note: FF.net is hostile to archiving and extremely annoying to save, hence the use of archive.ph rather than the double preservation on ghostarchive and the wayback machine, as I've been doing for the easier to scrape fics (AKA the ones of Ao3 that let you put the whole fic on one page.) For some reason, the next/back buttons don't work, but all chapters should be preserved, and can be navigated between by switching the chapter number in the url, instead.
Fanfiction, complete, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Phantom of Truth: Danny is kidnapped by the GIW who then, in a cruel twist of fate, bring in none other than Maddie Fenton, his own mother, to take the lead in the study of their latest capture.
Shadow of a Doubt: Danny has made it home, not whole, but alive. With his mother right by his side, which is fine, since she only hurt him when she didn't know it was him. He's home, he's safe, and everything is fine. This is where he wants to be, right?
...Right?
Lost, by Nylah link archive
Fanfiction, unfinished, urban fantasy/drama
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
A boy wakes up in a cabin with no idea who he is. With no memory and no idea where to go, he gets picked up by a bad crowd. Unfortunately for him and his budding hoodlum lifestyle, this is cut short when the people who call themselves family find him after all. Supposedly, he's Danny Fenton, a boy who went missing with his friends when they went on a hike days ago.
The boy is back, but Sam and Tucker are missing, and with a shiny new reputation for disciplinary misbehavior and severe trauma underneath the amnesia, ghost powers aren't nearly enough to set things right.
Danny doesn't remember his friends, but he's being blamed for their loss, and with the law and his past coming back to haunt him, the boy called Danny is going to have to make a choice.
A Half-a History, by Cordria Link Archive Archive
Fanfiction, finished, fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
What was meant to be a simple expidition into the Ghost Zone goes awry when Maddie is cut off from her husband, Jack, and access to the living world where both he and the rest of her family await her. Stuck on a strange island with no one but Phantom to help her, Maddie will need to use all the wits and resources she caan find to navigate the hostile territory between herself and home.
Now if only she could ignore all the strange things about their temporary shelter, and how haunted it seems, even accounting for its presence in a land of ghosts.
Wayward Son, by Avearia link archive archive
Fanfiction, unfinished, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
From IMDB:
Two Brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel across the United States in a 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurances. In Continuing the "family bussiness" after their father's death, the brothers soon learn that the "hunt" doesn't just involve slashing and hacking monsters, but also dealing with more powerful creatures, such angels, reapers, and gods.
A half ghost shacks up with a hunter in an effort to hide from his pursuers. Both can tell there's something the other is hiding, and neither are terribly eager to share.
Half Baked, by Avearia link archive 1 archive 2
Fanfiction, finished, fantasy/slice of life
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Danny and Clockwork bake cookies together.
Hunters and Halfas, by WolfeyedWitch link archive 1 archive 2
Fanfiction, unfinished, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
From IMDB:
Two Brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel across the United States in a 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurances. In Continuing the "family bussiness" after their father's death, the brothers soon learn that the "hunt" doesn't just involve slashing and hacking monsters, but also dealing with more powerful creatures, such angels, reapers, and gods.
Sam and Dean stumble over a boy who isn't human. Hunters that they are, they immidiately respond as though he's a threat. It's a descision they quickly regret once the kid starts crying.
It's Christmas Danny Phantom! By superphantom link archive 1 archive 2
Fanfiction, unfinished, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
From IMDB:
Two Brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel across the United States in a 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurances. In Continuing the "family bussiness" after their father's death, the brothers soon learn that the "hunt" doesn't just involve slashing and hacking monsters, but also dealing with more powerful creatures, such angels, reapers, and gods.
Sam and Dean get sent to Amity to investigate what's going on with it's highly unusual "ghosts". Danny, meanwhile, has had the usual bad mood that always gets to him during his least favorite holiday when he learns two tall weirdos have come to visit. Will Dean's seasonal cheer spoil his funk before or after they find out the son of two ghost hunters is slightly less than human, or will Danny successfully convince them of his Christmas hating ways?
Dead Man's Blood, by Anthrop Link archive 1 archive 2
Fanfiction, finished, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
From IMDB:
Two Brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel across the United States in a 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurances. In Continuing the "family bussiness" after their father's death, the brothers soon learn that the "hunt" doesn't just involve slashing and hacking monsters, but also dealing with more powerful creatures, such angels, reapers, and gods.
Sam and Dean roll into Amity Park after hearing about suspicious deaths concerning some local youths. The thing is, no one in town is too worried, confident some local hunter Sam and Dean have bever heard of before, Phantom, will make sure things are set to right.
Phantom of the Panic Room, by Runs_With_Wolves Link archive 1 archive 2
Fanfiction, unfinished,
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
From IMDB:
Two Brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester travel across the United States in a 1967 Chevy Impala, investigating and combating paranormal events and other unexplained occurances. In Continuing the "family bussiness" after their father's death, the brothers soon learn that the "hunt" doesn't just involve slashing and hacking monsters, but also dealing with more powerful creatures, such angels, reapers, and gods.
A sad, wet, and obviously inhuman child find his way to bobby's doorstep. Rather than push him away or kill him, Bobby finds himself taking the strange child in.
What They Hide, by ThoseFiveChicks
Fanfiction, unfinished, fantasy
From Wikipedia:
Follows the adventures of the Saturdays, a family of cryptozoologists who work to protect the world of cryptids and keep the secret of their existence form getting out. Together, the Saturdays travel the globe, protecting humanity and cryptids from those who would threaten them while battling twisted villians, like the megalomaniacle V.V Argost.
The battle is over, Argost is defeated, Zak Saturday survives.
And Zak's survival is Kur's survival, as the rest of the Saturday family soon finds out.
Zak is genuine in his belief that his powers are gone, and the elder Saturday's fresh from their son attempting to combat Argost with no intention of surviving the fight, decide to avoid alerting him to the otherwise for as long as they can.
The Boy with the Rings, by CrypticMoonFang
fanfiction, unfinished, paranormal
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
After an explosion frees him from the facillity, a young human experiment is finally free. But what is free, and now that he is, what should he do about it?
Between Tucker, Sam, and a family that calls themselves the Fentons, perhaps he can find out.
Echoes, by PhantomTwitch Link archive 1 archive 2
Fanfiction, unfinished, non-human protagonist, paranormal
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Danny's friends and family are worried about him. Ever since a portal accident left him hospitalized and damaged, he just hasn't been the same. Unreliable, reclusive, good grades and reliable attendence replaced with delequincy and failure, they don't know what to do.
Danny, meanwhile, is trying to hide a secret: He's not human anymore. Not since the portal accident, and never again, he will he ever be fully and wholly alive. Saddled with a ghostly, hazmat covered alternate form, a driving obsession, and deep self hate, he's just barely hanging on.
When he accidently causes Tucker and Sam to witness his "death echo" during a confrontation, even that crumbling grasp well and truly slips. With his friends and family convinced he's possesed, Danny becomes even more isolated, and piece by piece, the well kept secret of his ghost half falls away.
Will he still be accepted by those he cares for, or will they follow through on the cruel words they've unknowingly heaped on his other self?
Danny isn't sure, and he doesn't want to find out.
There will come a point where he may have to.
Phantom Reality, by Crusnik 13 link archive
Fanfiction, non-human protagonist, unfinished, urban fantasy
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
When Teenage slacker Jake long comes into his magical heritage, he is chosen as "The American Dragon", protector of the magical races of the United States in general and his hometown of New York in particular. Jake must juggle his supernatural obligations, human friendships, and dragon training. Between an insane teacher, magical mayhem, and a hardcore crush on a very pretty dragon hunter, Jake will need every advantage he's got to come out of highschool with his grades and the world intact.
Danny falls through a portal after getting shot by one of Skulker's new, nasty inventions, right in front of a very confused Jake Long. With Danny stuck in his ghost form and far from home, and Jake obligated by the rule of hospitality to care for the creepy dead kid, the two will have to work together to uncover the spectral secret lurking deep within New York.
Touch of the Past, by QueenStarOfTheUniverse
Fanfiction, finished, sci-fi
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Young Justice, the youth counterpart to the Justice league, made up of apprentices to older heros just beggining on their path to independent vigilantes. Lead by Aqua Lad, the gang quickly find themselves embroiled in a conspericy run by a mysterious organization known only as "the light".
For as long as Phantom could remember, he's been trapped, tortured by white clad scientists for reasons he doesn't fully understand. Things change when a gange of colerful heros help break him out, and Phantom is finally given the chance to be the hero he once was. Unfortunately, his memories prove hard to recover, which is a problem, because he's missing something, or more precisely, someone, and he needs that past knowledge to figure out where she went.
Powerless, by PixieGirl13
Fanfiction, finished, supernatural
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Thanks to a power-restricting watch and copious threats against his friends and family, Danny finds himself dragged on an enforced "bonding" trip with his evil uncle Vlad. Stuck in a forign country and forced to rely on nothing but his wits, Danny must not only escape Vlad, but the lurking enimies that threaten both half-ghosts deep in the heart of Japan.
Treading Water, by TheFullCatastrophe
Fanfiction, unfinished, fantasy, nonhuman protagonist
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Danny Fenton, son of anti-mer scientists and resident hydrophobe, finds himself turned into a human/fish hybrid thanks to the ill considered whimsy of a local mer-princess. Now equiped with teeth, scales, and the ability to never drown again, it is up to Danny and his friends to protect the town of Amity Beach from land and sea alike.
Snap, by Datawyrms (Verl)
Fanfiction, finished, nonhuman protagonist
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
So what happens when a half ghost falls down the stairs and turns braindead for just a little bit? According to Danny, nothing! Everything is just fine. Maybe he ripped himself out of his own body, and maybe he did it in front of his parents, but that's cool, he's had worse, this will definately resolve itself without him having to do anything about the body he used to inhabit. No, he doesn't need to think about that at all.
Vanish, by GauntTwister
fanfiction, nonhuman protagonist, horror, finished
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
The house is haunted, and when a half ghost and a bully run inside, they learn the house is hungry, too.
Tucker Foley and the Long arc of the Paranormal Universe, by helpivefallenandicantgetup
Fanfiction, finished, mystery, horror
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Someone has died, and someone is killing. When Amity Park is rocked by a series of murders, it's up to Tucker Foley, unhappy psychic, to solve the case. With the help of the local new kid (questionably human), and his best friend, Sam Manson, skeptical goth. Will the trio solve the mystery, or will they find themselves in too deep before the murderer comes for them, too?
More, by Ithic Ascendant
Fanfiction, unfinished
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Danny walks into the portal alone, and comes out of it changed. With the help some ghostly allies and the mentorship of Vlad, an older half-ghost, Danny must descover what he is: A hero, a monster, or something more.
Danny Phantom Reversal, by The Smiling Crow
Fanfiction, non-human protagonist, unfinished
Danny Fenton, son of eccentric ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton, finds his normal teenage life changed forever after accidently getting turned into a half ghost while investigating his parent's portal. Now able to turn into the super powered "Danny Phantom", he must balance teenage responsibilities with the protection of his town from spectral threat.
Danny Phantom, dead kid, gets caught in his parent's portal to the human world, and gets turned half-alive as a result! What will he do in regards to his new, half living status, and what will the world, in turn, do to him?
Harry by Proxy, by The Smiling Crow
Fanfiction, unfinished
Orphaned when he was a baby, Harry grew up under the dull, abusive care of his aunt and uncle Dursley. Unloved and unwanted, Harry's chance at escape comes in the form of an invitation to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Granted a wand and a destiny, it will take everything Harry and his friends have to fight the evil lord voldimort and save the world.
Harry is adopted by Slenderman, where he joins with several other kids, all creepypasta characters, and grows up in a happier, healthier enviroment than the Dursleys could ever hope to give.
Dumbledore, meanwhile, is frustrated at his inability to track down a certain eleven year old, who he's determined to drag into conflict as a weapon yoked to the side of light.
The Squirell Machine, by Hans Rickheit
Comic, finished, surreal
Two brothers, one love, and more farm-animal based instruments than you can shake a snail-bath at. One way or another, things will not end well.
The boys, by Garth Ennis
Comic, superhero, finished
Hughie Campbell's life is ruined one fine day when a passing superhero rams into the love of his life at mach speed, leaving her nothing but bits of gore and a pair of severed arms. Hughie is miserable, he's grieving, and then a man called Billy Butcher walks in and promises him a chance at revenge.
Now the newest member of a clandestine group known as "the boys", the fight is on to put down supes where they step out of line, or, if you're Billy, any supe, for any reason. He quit thinking of supers as real people with feelings a while back.
Will Hughie follow with him, or will he turn aside?
Preacher, by Garth Ennis
Comic, superhero???, finished
Jesse Custer, irreverent preacher, finds himself possesed one day by Genisis, a being half angel and half God. Now imbued with the ability to force anything that hears him to follow his commands, Jesse, his girlfriend, and his vampire buddy go on a road trip to find God, beat the bad guys, and maybe pick up a little bit of happiness along the way.
Mada Ikiteru/I'm still alive, by Motomiya Hiroshi
manga, drama, finished
In one fell swoop, a man looses everything: His job is taken, his kids leave him, his health is failing, he's utterly alone. There's just nothing more for him to live for, so one day, not long after, he decides to die.
His plans go awry, however, when his sucide fails, and he decides to take the opportunity to begin again.
He will keep living, and this time, he'll do it his way.
Covertly, Gloriously, by Hun
Comic, drama, tragedy, finished.
A North Korean secret agent is given a task by his masters: Infiltrate a South Korean village...as a fool.
Stuck for years on end pretending to be a moron, Ryu-Han Won comes to connect with the South Korean villagers even as his long assignment begins to experience disruption from other North Korean spies.
Myum-Mymum, by Currygom
Comic, drama, black humor??, finished
The official summery is so solid I can't think of any better way to put it, so I'm going to cheat a bit and just copy/paste it here:
The world is in an uproar over the discovery of a stone tablet thought to have been created 500 years ago. The stone contains predictions of major incidents that happened worldwide in the last 500 years. All of its prophecies had already come true. There is only one prophecy recorded on the stone that pertains to the future ahead: that the world will end in a year’s time, and only those who believe in the god drawn on the stone will find salvation. The name of this god is… Myum-Myum.
Tokyo Ghoul, by Sui Ishida
Comic, action, horror, nonhuman-protagonis, finished
Kaneki Ken is an ordinary young man, until he meets a girl who isn't ordinary at all. Made into a half-ghoul against his will, compelled to eat human flesh if he wants to survive, Kaneki will lose everything. If he keeps going, however, maybe, just maybe, he might be able to build something new.
Delve, by SenescentSoul
Webfiction, litRPG, Fantasy, unfinished
A young man is dumped into another world with nothing but his PJs. Unable to speak the language, with no clue what's going on, and one really odd blue box to guide the way, he will do his best to help himself and the people around him.
A tall order, as it happens, in a world that's already fallen once before.
A lot of reviewers complain that this series is math heavy, which has always baffled me. It's a litRPG, a genre that combines all the fun of a video game with all the fun of reading a book. A bit like watching a lets play, but screwing up your build can have world ending consequences that directly lead to the player's pain, suffering, or death.
Honestly, the best litRPGs are ones that explore their systems deeply, which delve does. Placing the setting in what is essentially a post-apocalyptic fantasy land that has regressed to the point where most people aren't literate and even the scholars have lost the concept of zero was a cool move that becomes more and more prominant as the series goes on. This is another one I picked up and forgot about for a while as I was waiting for it to update, but last I checked, ancient defense systems had been activated and the protagonist was trapped inside the city's barrier with an invading force held sway.
The protagonist himself is solid, being decent hearted and mathmatically inclined, and I like how the author took the time to build realistic consequences to a world built on a system that grants some people extroadinary powers while leaving others utterly ordinary and generally weak. Like a lot of litRPGs, it's the little details and the careful thought that really makes things work, and by the time I got to the lockdown arc, I was heavily invested in the trails of this mostly ordinary guy and the remarkable circumstances with which he'd found himself caught up.
Embrace the blade, by Valquist
Webfiction, litrpg, Fantasy, unfinished
After spending his entire life as a cripple, James Ramson is determined to live his new life as Crimson his way, balancing a genuine approach to the world around him with the need to get stronger and save that same realm from falling into chaos as it staggers on the brink.
Now if he could just convince the metagaming weeaboo of a god that this is something he can totally do, form a party, and stop discovering secret entrances to enchanted libraries, perhaps he'll pull it off.
So the author of this work has restarted his story three? Different times now, and on top of that, is slow as hell. I've followed, read, and eagerly awaited chapters for every one.
It's not the most original, or the best, or the greatest, but Embrace the Blade has that genuine streak that only comes from a place of true passion. And that's not to say it's uninspired, either. The relationship between the protagonist, who wants to live according to his ideals, and the god who isekai'd him, who wants his champion to win, and is absolutely down to cheat in ways Crimson can't stand, creates an interesting dynamic between them. He's not evil, and neither is Crimson, but where one focuses on the small and personal, the other is a big picture guy all the way.
There's this one bit where Crimson is meant to answer a question presented by the system (which in this work was created by the gods to help humanity grow,) and he has to actively turn down the god's offer to hand over the answer that will give him the strongest possible power.
One of the themes of the work is that what's most fitting for a person is not always the strongest, and what's meaningful has as much value as what's useful and best. At least a few people seem to dislike how incredibly stubborn Crimson is in his choices and beliefs, but for me, it gives the character color, and makes sense given his background.
I remember the prose being really solid, too. By the third re-write, the author has definately gained a solid grasp of how to make some excellent descriptive text.
The Zombie Knight, by George M. Frost
Webfiction, urban fantasy, unfinished
Hector died, but that's okay, because the grim reaper turns out to be a pretty cool guy. He even has a proposition for the young man: Return to the living, and become an earthly agent of the afterlife, complete with fun perks, like the inability to die, and super powers, and a brand new, undead buddy who is growing increasingly concerned about Hector's parents and their attitude towards child rearing.
Oh, and don't forget to watch out for abominations!
You know, I was thinking about it, and I'm pretty sure this was my first webnovel. I remember I was really into this webcomic site called Smackjeeves, and I spotted an advert for the fic while I was hanging around the main page. I was pretty young at the time - must've been about ten?eleven? Cripes, and because I was bored and it had a skull on it, I decided to give it a click.
I was already a big time reader, but purely through physical books that I got at shops or the library. I had no idea that there were books out there that could be read by anyone, just hanging around on the internet, online, for free.
Yes, this includes fanfiction. It would be another few years again before I went from reading orginal works and started getting into ff.net and A03.
Frankly, The Zombie Knight is yet another work hanging around on my re-read list, since it's been years and oh my god that backlog is huge, but even so, it deserves a spot on this list, I think, just for the sheer nostilogia of it. I've read so many good things thanks to this work, I almost feel like I owe it.
Godclads, by OstensibleMammal
webfiction, urban fantasy, cyberpunk, non-human lead, unfinished
Avo is a ghoul, an artificial shock trouper designed to aid his creaters in world domination. His creators fail, his kind slaughtered en-mass almost as soon as they came out, and Avo, Avo would be saved. And when his savior vanishes and Avo awakens with a power he can't remember ever recieving, it will be left to him to carve a bloodstained path through a world of dead gods and chained souls to find the truth.
Is the power of the divine enough to raise a ghoul above his station, or will Avo succumb to the enemies lurking in his mind and in the world, to become one more skidmark in the streets of New Voltun?
Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal,
There where the vines cling crimson on the wall,
And in the twilight wait for what will come.
The leaves will whisper there of her, and some,
Like flying words, will strike you as they fall;
But go, and if you listen she will call.
Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal—
Luke Havergal.
No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies
To rift the fiery night that’s in your eyes;
But there, where western glooms are gathering,
The dark will end the dark, if anything:
God slays Himself with every leaf that flies,
And hell is more than half of paradise.
No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies—
In eastern skies.
Out of a grave I come to tell you this,
Out of a grave I come to quench the kiss
That flames upon your forehead with a glow
That blinds you to the way that you must go.
Yes, there is yet one way to where she is,
Bitter, but one that faith may never miss.
Out of a grave I come to tell you this—
To tell you this.
There is the western gate, Luke Havergal,
There are the crimson leaves upon the wall.
Go, for the winds are tearing them away,—
Nor think to riddle the dead words they say,
Nor any more to feel them as they fall;
But go, and if you trust her she will call.
There is the western gate, Luke Havergal—
Luke Havergal.
---
A toad the power mower caught,
Chewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got
To the garden verge, and sanctuaried him
Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade
Of the ashen and heartshaped leaves, in a dim,
Low, and a final glade.
The rare original heartsblood goes,
Spends in the earthen hide, in the folds and wizenings, flows
In the gutters of the banked and staring eyes. He lies
As still as if he would return to stone,
And soundlessly attending, dies
Toward some deep monotone,
Toward misted and ebullient seas
And cooling shores, toward lost Amphibia's emperies.
Day dwindles, drowning and at length is gone
In the wide and antique eyes, which still appear
To watch, across the castrate lawn,
The haggard daylight steer.
---
---
D. M.
AELIA LAELIA CRISPIS
NEC VIR NEC MULIER
NEC ANDROGYNA
NEC PUELLA NEC JUVENIS
NEC ANUS NEC CASTA
NEC MERETRIX NEC PUDICA
SED OMNIA
SUBLATA
NEQUE FAME NEQUE FERRO
NEQUE VENENO
SED OMNIBUS
NEC COELO NEC AQUIS
NEC TERRIS
SED UBIQUE JACET
LUCIUS AGATHO PRISCUS
NEC MARITUS NEC AMATOR
NEC NECESSARIUS
NEQUE MOERENS
NEQUE GAUDENS
NEQUE FLENS
HANC NEQUE MOLEM
NEC PYRAMIDEM
NEC SEPULCHRUM
SCIT ET NESCIT
CUI POSUERIT
HOC EST SEPULCHRUM
INTUS CADAVER NON HABENS
HOC EST CADAVER SEPULCHRUM
EXTRA NON HABENS
SED CADAVER IDEM EST
ET SEPULCHRUM SIBI
---
D.M.
Aelia Laelia Crispis,
Not man, nor woman, nor hermaphrodite;
Not girl, nor youth, nor old woman;
Not chaste, nor unchaste, nor modest;
But all [of these]:
Carried off,
Not by hunger, not by sword, nor by poison
But by all [of them]:
Lies,
Not in air, not in earth, not in the waters,
But everywhere.
Lucius Agatho Priscus,
Not her husband, nor her lover, nor her friend;
Not sorrowing, nor rejoicing, nor weeping;
Erecting
This, not a stone-pile, nor a pyramid,
Nor a sepulchre
But all:
Knows, and knows not
,
To whom he erects it.
This is a tomb that has no body in it.
This is a body that has no tomb round it.
But body and tomb are the same.
---
Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.
Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky
And the affrighted steed ran on alone,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment,
Little souls who thirst for fight,
These men were born to drill and die.
The unexplained glory flies above them,
Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom—
A field where a thousand corpses lie.
Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.
Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches,
Raged at his breast, gulped and died,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
Swift, blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.
Mother whose heart hung humble as a button
On the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind.
---
By Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
---
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away...
When I came home last night at three
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall
I couldn't see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don't you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don't slam the door... (slam!)
Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away...
---
Márgarét, áre you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Áh! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
---
Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee;
Not untwist — slack they may be — these last strands of man
In me ór, most weary, cry I can no more. I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.
But ah, but O thou terrible, why wouldst thou rude on me
Thy wring-world right foot rock? lay a lionlimb against me? scan
With darksome devouring eyes my bruisèd bones? and fan,
O in turns of tempest, me heaped there; me frantic to avoid thee and flee?
Why? That my chaff might fly; my grain lie, sheer and clear.
Nay in all that toil, that coil, since (seems) I kissed the rod,
Hand rather, my heart lo! lapped strength, stole joy, would laugh, chéer.
Cheer whom though? the hero whose heaven-handling flung me, fóot tród
Me? or me that fought him? O which one? is it each one? That night, that year
Of now done darkness I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God.
---
What are days for?
Days are where we live.
They come, they wake us
Time and time over.
They are to be happy in:
Where can we live but days?
Ah, solving that question
Brings the priest and the doctor
In their long coats
Running over the fields.
---
Lo! ’t is a gala night
Within the lonesome latter years!
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears,
Sit in a theatre, to see
A play of hopes and fears,
While the orchestra breathes fitfully
The music of the spheres.
Mimes, in the form of God on high,
Mutter and mumble low,
And hither and thither fly—
Mere puppets they, who come and go
At bidding of vast formless things
That shift the scenery to and fro,
Flapping from out their Condor wings
Invisible Wo!
That motley drama—oh, be sure
It shall not be forgot!
With its Phantom chased for evermore
By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in
To the self-same spot,
And much of Madness, and more of Sin,
And Horror the soul of the plot.
But see, amid the mimic rout,
A crawling shape intrude!
A blood-red thing that writhes from out
The scenic solitude!
It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs
The mimes become its food,
And seraphs sob at vermin fangs
In human gore imbued.
Out—out are the lights—out all!
And, over each quivering form,
The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, “Man,”
And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.
---
This ae night, this ae night
Every night and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle lighte,
And Christ receive thy saule
When thou from hence away art past,
Every night and alle,
To Whinny-Muir thou comest at laste,
And Christ receive thy saule.
If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon,
Every night and alle,
Sit thee down and put them on,
And Christ receive thy soule.
If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gav'st nane
Every night and alle,
The whinnies shall prick thee to the bare bane,
And Christ receive thy saule.
From Whinny-Muir when thou may'st passe,
Every night and alle,
To Brig o' Dread thou com'st at last,
And Christ receive thy saule.
If ever thou gavest silver or gold,
Every night and alle,
At Brig o' Dread thou'lt find foothold
And Christ receive thy saule.
If silver or gold thou ne'er gav'st nane,
Every night and alle,
Down thou tumblest to Hell flame,
And Christ receive they saule.
From Brig o' Dread when thou may'st passe,
Every night and alle,
To Purgatory Fire thou com'st at last,
And Christ receive they saule.
If ever thou gavest meat or drink,
Every night and alle,
The fire shall never make thee shrink,
And Christ receive thy saule.
If meat or drink thou ne'er gav'st nane
Every night and alle,
The fire will burn thee to the bare bane,
And Christ receive thy saule.
This ae night, this ae nighte
Every night and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
And Christ receive thy saule.
---
A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds
And when the weeds begin to grow
It’s like a garden full of snow
And when the snow begins to fall
It’s like a bird upon the wall
And when the bird away does fly
It’s like an eagle in the sky
And when the sky begins to roar
It’s like a lion at the door
And when the door begins to crack
It’s like a stick across your back
And when your back begins to smart
It’s like a penknife in your heart
And when your heart begins to bleed
You’re dead, and dead, and dead indeed.
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If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
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