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If Shel Silverstein witnessed one too many crimes going unpunished and took a dark turn, this is what he would sound like. Or perhaps Dr Seuss injected himself with Science Juice, things went wrong as they are wont to do, and Edward Gorey emerged as his Mr. Hyde. In any case, these rhymes are insanely charming and bleak.

An incautious young woman named Venn
Was seen with the wrong sort of men;
She vanished one day,
But the following May
Her legs were retrieved from a fen.

There was a young woman whose stammer
Was atrocious, and so was her grammar;
But they were not improved
When her husband was moved
To knock out her teeth with a hammer.

The Suicide, as she is falling,
Illuminated by the moon,
Regrets her act, and finds appalling
The thought she will be dead so soon.

The Proctor buys a pupil ices,
And hopes the boy will not resist
When he attempts to practise vices
Few people even know exists.

And of course the Gashlycrumb Tinies:

A is for AMY who fell down the stairs
B is for BASIL assaulted by bears...

Q is for QUENTIN who sank in a mire
R is for RHODA consumed by a fire...

Just, like.....DAMN, dude.
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SECOND READ
The Unstrung Harp
A meta-story about a writer writing a story. Beautiful and boring, like reading the world's best written grocery list.

The Listing Attic
Morbid, intermittently French limericks.

A nurse motivated by spite
Tied her infantine charge to a kite;
She launched it with ease
On the afternoon breeze,
And watched till it flew out of sight.

The Doubtful Guest
An anteater (in scarf and tennis shoes) arrives at a house and silently makes itself at home. In rhyming couplets.

The Object Lesson
Presented in story form but every sentence is an absurd non-sequitur. My kind of thing.

The Bug Book
Seven happy bugs are interfered with by a giant belligerent beetle so (view spoiler)[they squash it with a big rock then throw a party. (hide spoiler)]

The Fatal Lozenge
26 alphabetic ABAB narrative poems.

The Orphan whom there's none to cherish
Strays through the gloom on naked feet;
She presently will fall, and perish
Unnoticed in some squalid street.

The Hapless Child
A devastating tragedy about a happy girl who becomes orphaned, gets turned out on the street, and then things get even worse.

The Curious Sofa
A cheeky tale filled with double entendres, scandalous innuendo, ribald suggestions and implications. But it never once outright states what is happening.

The Willowdale Handcar
Three people ride a handcar down the railroad tracks and see lots of people as months go by.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies
Classic.

E is for Ernest who choked on a peach
F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech

The Insect God
One long narrative poem composed of ABAB stanzas. A little girl is kidnapped; her family waits in anguish and the police investigate in vain. (view spoiler)[The kidnappers eventually sacrifice her to the Insect God. (hide spoiler)]

The West Wing
No words, just pictures of rooms. I can't make narrative sense out of it but it does showcase Gorey's wonderful textured ink illustrations.

The Wuggly Ump
A very Seussian story, until it isn't. In rhyming couplets, three children play games while the Wuggly Ump gets closer and closer. In the end: (view spoiler)[come on, this is Gorey. It eats them. (hide spoiler)]

The Sinking Spell
Rhyming couplets again. Something is spotted sinking through the sky. It passes through the roof and every level of the house on the way down. It's never drawn, only observed by the characters.

The Remembered Visit
A little girl visits an old man, then forgets the promise she makes him until it is too late.