Something Wicked

This Way Comes

Several folks have asked about the poem on our start page.  Hopefully this will help:

The text we use is from mixed sources.

Let's start in the late 1500's.  We're going to start off with a cat named William Shakepeare. 

Keep in mind that Shakespeare invented more than 1700 words that we commonly use today and many of our phrases have root in his writings. Click below for a few examples:

In Act IV Scene I of The Scottish Play, we find three witches doing a little bit of an incantation and making a really nasty soup.  As the three crones finish up, Hecate appears and rattles off a few lines that makes them all do a little song and dance (no specific text is provided) as Hecate leaves the witches realize a mortal is approaching (good ol' MacBeth) so the second witch says:

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks!

 Now, fast forward a couple hundred years.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the Christmas Carol "I heard The Bells On Christmas Day" in 1864 (during the civil war).  Incidently, the tune for the words was written in 1872 by John B. Calkin.  An alternate tune is sometimes used written in 1845 by Joseph Mainzer.

The Carol starts off typically enough for the season:

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Stanzas four and five reflect the sense of despair brought about by the war and are usually omitted from most hymnals, but they are:

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound the carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn, the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

They last two stanzas are the ones we are interested in for our story:

And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Ok, skip forward another hundred years.

In 1962 Science Fiction Author Ray Bradbury wrote a book called, you guessed it, Something Wicked This Way Comes.

The book used bits of both our previous poems.  Early in the book (chapter 5) the first and last stanzas of Longfellow's poem are quoted.  Someone is whistling the tune while putting up posters for Cooger & Dark's Show and Charles Halloway thinks of them.

Towards the end, in chapter 37, the first two lines of Shakespeare are quoted.  Again it is Charles Halloway.  They come into his mind while he is in the library.

In 1983 Disney (believe it or not) was responsible for bringing the book to the silver screen.  The movie first billed, according to the IMDB were:  

In the screenplay Jonathan Pryce (Dark of "Cooger & Dark") and Jason Robards (Charles Halloway) recite a bit of  poetry combining both poems in the book:

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Then the bells rang loud and deep.
God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

For the most part the plot for the book and movie were pretty much the same:

What if someone discovers your secret dream, that one great wish you would do anything for? And what if that someone suddenly makes your dream come true -- before you learn the price you have to pay?

In that strange, dark year of 1929, Halloween came a little bit early. And it was two boys: Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway, who noticed it first. Will was born one minute before Halloween, Jim was born one minute after.

Three hours after midnight, one week before Halloween, on October 24th, Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show rolls into Green Town, Illinois. A carnival like no other, it feeds on the dreams and weaknesses of those drawn to its eerie attractions, destroying every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. Two boys -- best friends Will and Jim -- are about to learn the secret of its smoke, mazes and mirrors as they confront a nightmarish evil that will change their lives forever.

NOTE FOR THE BOOK: This was originally a short story called "Dark Carnival", planned to go into the anthology "The October Country" but never made it. It then evolved into a full length novel over a couple of years.

NOTE FOR THE MOVIE: The plot involves two boys who end up confronting the forces of evil as an unholy carnival comes to their town. Sound vaguely familiar? Well, this is the story that Don Coscarelli wanted to film, but couldn't because the film rights were owned by other parties. Instead, he came up with a macabre twist on the "two-brothers-versus-evil" plot and called it PHANTASM.

We're almost there!

In Late 1997 Lexus rolled out a new ad campaign for the model year 1998 GS300 and GS400.  The print campaign for "the fiercest automatic sedan in the world" introduced their new slogan of "Faster. Sleeker. Meaner." and included the lines:

Distant thunder, cold as stone,
a V8 screams down from its throne.
One by one, each car  succumbs.
Something wicked this way comes.

There were four different television ads, each with a different couplet being recited by a voice actress named Flo DiRe, although many people thought it was Linda Hunt, whom she did sound just like.  The ads featured imagery like Burning trees and sideshow clowns juggling by the side of the road.  It had a sort of "Ernest Goes To A Fellini Flick" feel.  All four rhymes were written by the ad agency and the 'MockBeth' lines became very popular. 

The other three recitations were:

Ill winds mark its fearsome flight,
and autumn branches creak with fright.
The landscape turns to ashen crumbs,
when something wicked this way comes.

Crystal water turns to dark,
where e'er its presence leaves its mark,
and boiling currents pound like drums,
when something wicked this way comes.

A presence dark invades the fair,
and gives the horses ample scare,
for chaos reigns and panic numbs,
when something wicked this way comes.

The ad agency responsible for the campaign was Team One of El Segundo, CA.

And our final little bit...

Lastly, there are three stanzas of a poem known as "Something Wicked This Way Grows".  They are usually credited as MockBeth in "The Scottish Gardening Manual".  It seems that MANY folks are trying to take credit, or not giving credit where it was due.  This particular poem has been widely stolen.  Some users even tried to make a buck off it!  As it was, I myself happened upon the poem from a spurious source.  I was contacted by the author.  Proper credit goes to Alice Day, aka mAlice.  She has great info on a variety of theme gardens.  Please visit her by clicking below.  

 BTW -- if you should happen upon any commercial products bearing the poem -- DO NOT BUY THEM.  Alice worked hard on her web site and doesn't get penny one from these skells.  In any event the poem  is:

  Flowers bloom as black as night
Removing color from your sight
Nightmarish vines block your way
Thorns reach out to catch their prey

And by the pricking of your thumbs
Realize that their poison numbs
From frightful blooms, rank odors seep
Bats & beasties fly & creep

'Cross this evil land, ill winds blow
Despite the darkness, mushrooms glow
All will rot & decompose
For something wicked this way grows...

Usually, all of the above, or bits thereof are combined to make one megapoem, and credit is given to everyone from the Bible to Tennyson.  

update June 2004:

Unless you live under a rock, you are aware of the Harry Potter craze that has swept the globe.  Good books, even for adult reading.  The third book, "Prisoner of Azkaban" comes to the silver screen in June of 2004.  The tagline is "something wicked this way comes".  The something wicked is Sirius Black, but this page will not comment on his wickedness until after Xmas, just in case someone didn't read the book.

The song you hear playing on the page is written by John Williams, the famous composer.  In case you didn't know Williams wrote the theme music for many famous movies including Jaws, Star Wars, Saving Pvt. Ryan and the Indiana Jones movies.  Click the theme music below to get a complete listing

Evidently from the trailer, there is a chorus at Hogwarts that sings the song.  The lyrics are based upon the witches incantation from MacBeth (previously mentioned).  The complete spell is below:

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