Hobgoblins know the proper way to dance: Arms akimbo, loopy legs askew, Leaping into darkness with delight, Lusting for the ecstasy of fright, Open to the charm of horrors new....

In a playful, sing-song cadence, the lines imagine “hobgoblins” as connoisseurs of a particular aesthetic: the joyous embrace of fear. The physical comedy of “arms akimbo” and “loopy legs askew” turns the monstrous into something exuberant and theatrical, suggesting that fright can be a kind of dance—an art form with its own rules and pleasures. The poem’s energy hinges on paradox: darkness becomes a place of “delight,” and “horrors new” possess “charm.” Read this way, the passage celebrates the allure of the spooky and the imaginative freedom of Halloween-like fantasy, where terror is safely transformed into ecstasy and play.