What do you think?
Rate this book
Peacock Pie
The perfect gift for children aged 8+, this stunning classic collection of poetry will delight a new generation of readers of the Faber Children's Classics list.
Peacock Pie contains the finest of Walter de la Mare's poems for children, accompanied by exquisite original illustrations from Edward Ardizzone. This beautiful new edition of a classic anthology is an essential part of any child's bookshelf.
Peacock Pie contains the finest of Walter de la Mare's poems for children, accompanied by exquisite original illustrations from Edward Ardizzone. This beautiful new edition of a classic anthology is an essential part of any child's bookshelf.
Audio CD
First published January 1, 1913
23 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Walter de la Mare
525 books173 followersWalter John de la Mare was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fiction, including "Seaton's Aunt" and "All Hallows". In 1921, his novel Memoirs of a Midget won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, and his post-war Collected Stories for Children won the 1947 Carnegie Medal for British children's books.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 10, 2021
Walter de la Mare was one of my Grampy's favorite poets. When we (my siblings and I) were young, he would recite his poems to us from memory. We could tell from the faraway look in his eyes and the way his voice changed how much he loved these poems and how they took him away to other places and times in his mind's eye.
In Peacock Pie, I recognized a couple of poems, but most were new to me, or perhaps long forgotten. I enjoyed the playfulness of some and thoughtfulness of others. Nature, whimsy and wordplay play a large part in these poems and they provided me with the most enjoyment.
My favorites of this collection of poems include: Some One (remembered from childhood), The Barber's, The Lost Shoe, A Widow's Weeds, The Ride-By-Nights, and Trees.
Some One
Some one came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Some one came knocking,
I'm sure - sure - sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a-stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl's call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all. at all.
In Peacock Pie, I recognized a couple of poems, but most were new to me, or perhaps long forgotten. I enjoyed the playfulness of some and thoughtfulness of others. Nature, whimsy and wordplay play a large part in these poems and they provided me with the most enjoyment.
My favorites of this collection of poems include: Some One (remembered from childhood), The Barber's, The Lost Shoe, A Widow's Weeds, The Ride-By-Nights, and Trees.
Some One
Some one came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Some one came knocking,
I'm sure - sure - sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a-stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl's call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all. at all.
January 4, 2022
A lovely collection of Walter de la Mare's poetry for children, many I hadn't come across before. Beautiful illustrations by the talented Ardizzone. A pity these poetry collections are nearly always printed on yellowy, rough paper as this one is, it spoils the feel of the book.
October 18, 2015
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3...I am reading these outloud to the Main Man
FANTASTIC beaty rhymes if you have/are kids. Take this:
THE SHIP OF RIO
There was a ship of Rio
Sailed out into the blue,
And nine and ninety monkeys
Were all her jovial crew.
From bo'sun to the cabin boy,
From quarter to caboose,
There weren't a stitch of calico
To breech 'em - tight or loose;
From spar to deck, from deck to keel,
From barnacle to shroud,
There weren't one pair of reach-me-downs
To all that jabbering crowd.
But wasn't it a gladsome sight,
When roared the deep sea gales,
To see them reef her fore and aft
A-swinging by their tails!
Oh, wasn't it a gladsome sight,
When glassy calm did come,
To see them squatting tailor-wise
Around a keg of rum!
Oh, wasn't it a gladsome sight,
When in she sailed to land,
To see them all a-scampering skip
For nuts across the sand!
THE BOOKWORM
'I'm tired - Oh, tired of books,' said Jack,
'I long for meadows green,
And woods, where shadowy violets
Nod their cool leaves between;
I long to see the ploughman stride
His darkening acres o'er,
To hear the hoarse sea-waters drive
Their billows 'gainst the shore;
I long to watch the sea-mew wheel
Back to her rock-perched mate;
Or, where the breathing cows are housed,
Lean dreaming o'er the gate.
Something has gone, and ink and print
Will never bring it back;
I long for the green fields again,
I'm tired of books,' said Jack.
November 19, 2018
“Peacock Pie is surely one of the greatest children’s books of the century.” said The Times. I’ve had this secondhand book of Walter de la Mare’s poems for a while and had occasionally picked out a poem or two to read to my two boys. But this year I read them a lot more and realised how brilliant this collection is. The majority of the poems are great fun, carried along by crisp rhythm and rhyme. But many also have a subtle mystery. They appear as simple vignettes of people’s lives, but the more you read them, the more they resonate with darker, more adult themes.
February 24, 2019
The poetry in this volume was rather fun to read. It gave me a much needed laugh.
December 13, 2020
Often I've heard the Wind sigh
By the ivied orchard wall,
Over the leaves in the dark night,
Breathe a sighing call,
And faint away in the silence
While I, in my bed,
Wondered, 'twixt dreaming and waking,
What it said.
Nobody knows what the Wind is,
Under the height of the sky,
Where the hosts of the stars keep far away house
And its wave sweeps by -
Just a great wave of the air,
Tossing the leaves in its sea,
And foaming under the eaves of the roof
That covers me.
And so we live under deep water,
All of us, beasts and men,
And our bodies are buried down under the sand,
When we go again;
And leave, like the fishes, our shells,
And float on the Wind and away,
To where, o'er the marvellous tides of the air,
Burns day.
By the ivied orchard wall,
Over the leaves in the dark night,
Breathe a sighing call,
And faint away in the silence
While I, in my bed,
Wondered, 'twixt dreaming and waking,
What it said.
Nobody knows what the Wind is,
Under the height of the sky,
Where the hosts of the stars keep far away house
And its wave sweeps by -
Just a great wave of the air,
Tossing the leaves in its sea,
And foaming under the eaves of the roof
That covers me.
And so we live under deep water,
All of us, beasts and men,
And our bodies are buried down under the sand,
When we go again;
And leave, like the fishes, our shells,
And float on the Wind and away,
To where, o'er the marvellous tides of the air,
Burns day.
December 10, 2016
Some tremendously good poems in here. The latter half of the book as my favorite. Some of the poems are quite haunting, particularly "The Song of the Secret." Beautiful poems too - "Silver" is one of those. And some funny and cute poems, that old children's magazines were famous for.
I read the edition illustrated by W. Heath Robinson, whose pictures are perfect and evocative of the era - although his illustrations are a bit liking stepping into an antique store. You can almost smell the old doll's clothing and costume jewelry and furniture polish.
I read the edition illustrated by W. Heath Robinson, whose pictures are perfect and evocative of the era - although his illustrations are a bit liking stepping into an antique store. You can almost smell the old doll's clothing and costume jewelry and furniture polish.
January 4, 2019
I never thought I would catch myself saying this but I wish that I still had smaller children at home to do homeschool work with because I would have loved to use these poems as a curriculum basis. He covers history, sciences, grammar, vocabulary. I could use nearly every poem in this book to open up the eyes of children to some new thing or, more importantly, some old thing, that I wish them to understand. These poems are a great jumping off point for further discussion and research. Sigh.
October 10, 2025
Ere my heart beats too coldly and faintlyDespite surviving into a new Elizabethan age Walter de la Mare (1873–1956) was a true Victorian; unsurprisingly then – as is evident from this anthology of children’s poetry which first appeared just before the Great War, when George V was on the throne – the imagery, vocabulary and lifestyles evoked here may at times belie a recent publisher’s claim that it’s “an essential part of any child’s bookshelf.”
To remember sad things, yet be gay,
I would sing a brief song of the world’s little children
Magic hath stolen away.
— ‘The Truants’.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t much for a young 21st-century reader to glean from the collection; on the contrary, their brevity, their rhythms and the accompanying line illustrations by Edward Ardizzone all make this an ideal treasury for children (of whatever age) to quietly dip into or read aloud to oneself, and from which to choose favourite pieces to learn by heart.
Around ninety-odd poems, many lasting a page or two at most, speak of melancholy and solitude, but also whimsy and nonsense, philosophy and folklore. And though many seem as light as gossamer threads quite a few have an indefinable heft to them.
The WindowMany poems are about solitary children, with or without agency: ‘The Window’ has a youngster observing but unobserved; in ‘The Lost Shoe’ we’re led to believe that Lucy searches the world over for her missing footwear; in ‘The Dunce’ a schoolboy in disgrace sits morosely over his work; then there’s ‘poor Miss 7’ who lies abed in sickliness having ‘sour physic given’ but has good memories to bring her hope for the future. But there are also solitary adults: a widow in her garden surrounded by her wildflowers, an old soldier begging for food from door to door; a king sitting alone at his dining table; a charcoal-burner in the forest with only pigs for company.
Behind the blinds I sit and watch
The people passing – passing by;
And not a single one can see
My tiny watching eye.
They cannot see my little room,
All yellowed with the shaded sun;
They do not even know I’m here;
Nor’ll guess when I am gone.
Here too are poems about the natural world. We observe beasts like the donkey put out to grass in ‘Nicholas Nye’; we read in ‘Earth Folk’ that ‘The cat she walks on padded claws, | The wolf on the hills lays stealthy paws, | Feathered birds in the rain-sweet sky | At their ease in the air, flit low, flit high’; snail and slug use the cover of darkness to invite a worm to raid the garden with them in ‘Old Shellover’; and in ‘Hide and Seek’ wind, moon, cloud and wave flit from the poet’s ‘dream of Wake | Into the dream of Sleep.’ Meanwhile, sly fairies, enticing mermaids, covens of witches and a single giant also have their time in the limelight; and roughly halfway through we come across narratives in ballad style with rhyming quatrains (‘The Thief at Robin’s Castle’, ‘Berries’, ‘Off the Ground’). And let me not forget the nonsense poems (‘The Ship of Rio’ or ‘Tillie’ for example) or the abandoned buildings of ‘The Old Stone House’ and ‘The Ruin’.
There’s definitely order amidst the apparent chaos, with loose groupings and patterns. The collection opens and closes with riders, pale as death in the moonlight, faster than the sun (in two poems titled ‘The Horseman’) or with ‘a face of skin and bone’ as in 'The Song of Finis':
‘Lone for an end!’ cried Knight to steed,Eight pieces called a ‘song’ conclude the anthology, citing secrets, soldiers, bees, enchantment, dreams, shadows, madness and an end, a roll call as it were of many of the themes and moods highlighted in Peacock Pie. And what exactly is the collection’s title referencing? Here I’m reminded of Jan Brueghel the Elder’s 1620 painting The Senses of Taste, Hearing and Touch: one of a pair of allegorical pictures by the artist, it features off-centre a dinner table on which sits a peacock pie, formerly the elaborate centrepiece of many a medieval banquet until replaced by New World turkey pies. But ‘The Song of the Mad Prince’, the penultimate poem in the anthology which actually furnishes the title, is altogether more enigmatic:
Loosed an eager rein—
Charged with his challenge into Space:
And quiet did quiet remain.
Who said, ‘Peacock Pie?’And that’s the overall impression I get of this anthology: enigma, bolstered by nostalgia and melancholy. I loved it, for its timelessness, its seeming simplicity, and its appeal to both heart and mind. It’s a collection I intend to not only treasure but frequently revisit.
The old King to the sparrow:
Who said, ‘Crops are ripe?’
Rust to the harrow:
Who said, ‘Where sleeps she now?’
Where rests she now her head,
Bathed in eve’s loveliness’?—
That’s what I said.
Who said, ‘Ay, mum’s the word’?
Sexton to willow:
Who said, ‘Green duck for dreams,
Moss for a pillow’?
Who said, ‘All Time’s delight
Hath she for narrow bed;
Life’s troubled bubble broken’?—
That’s what I said.
July 24, 2019
A great collection of poems - generally aimed at children I felt, lots of brilliant rhymes, imagery and atmospheric as well as often comic. My Faber edition has lots of beautiful accompanying illustrations.
The poems are presented in different sections which isn't indicated in my edition: these are "Up and Down," "Boys and Girls," "Three Queer Tales," "Places and People," "Beasts," "Witches and Fairies," "Earth and Air," and "Songs."
The poems are presented in different sections which isn't indicated in my edition: these are "Up and Down," "Boys and Girls," "Three Queer Tales," "Places and People," "Beasts," "Witches and Fairies," "Earth and Air," and "Songs."
April 28, 2023
TIL: T.S. Eliot je posvetio pesmu De la Mareu i to je to:
https://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.c...
https://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.c...
August 9, 2008
A great collection of children's poetry - the edition I read had illustrations done by Louise Brierley which were fantastic.
September 19, 2025
I am old-fashioned, so I really liked this rhyming poetry. De La Mare had an expertise in beautiful descriptions, so that the reader can envision him/herself in the settings or with the people.
April 9, 2023
Peacock Pie, by Walter De La Mare, is another one of my efforts to read old-fashioned, out-of-favor, or just plain odd children's books lest they be forgotten. I don't think that will happen to this work anytime soon, because for many years it must have been quite popular to read to children. There are many listed editions, and for the record, mine is different from those.
I found this copy in my Mom's things, but I do not remember ever having it read to me. I suspect she bought it because it was old and had an unusual name. It was published in 1941, and one of the opening pages states, "This special edition is published by arrangement with the publishers of the regular edition Henry Holt & Company and E.M. Hale and Company, Eau Claire, Wisconsin." Cadmus Books is printed on the inside of the cover, which must have had a cover jacket at one time.
It is an excellent book in construction, 179 pages in length, with illustrations throughout. We readers are going to miss this level of quality and workmanship, because I don't think it will ever come back.
"Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes," is just as strange as the name suggests. Many of the poems are similar to Mother Goose rhymes or songs such as "Three Blind Mice." "Berries," for instance, is a little story about an old woman who meets a fairy who has the inside scoop on where the best blackberries can be found. Old Goodie finds the mother lode of berries, and in gratitude makes a small jar of jam for the fairy. That one is pretty innocent and light-hearted.
The "Thief at Robin's Castle," on the other hand, is a fairly awful tale about a thief who covets every single aspect of his victims' life, so much that he takes not just wealth but the formerly happy children as well:
"But though a moment there his hard heart faltered,
Eftsoones he took them twain,
And slipped them into his Bag with all his Plunder
And soft stole down again."
"Spoon, Platter, Goblet, Ducats, Dishes, Trinkets,
And those two Children dear,
A-quaking, in the clinking and the clanking,
And half bemused with fear..."
For just plain old oddness, however, one can't beat, "The Truants."
"Ere my heart beats too coldly and faintly
To remember sad things, yet be gay,
I would sing a brief song of the world's little children
Magic hath stolen away."
"The primroses scattered by April,
The stars of the wide Milky Way,
Cannot outnumber the hosts of the children
Magic hath stolen away..."
And much more in that vein. I don't think I ever would have read that to my children, and I am a guy who was pretty quick to read "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit" to my boys.
So, I don't recommend it for young children, but I think this kind of book is valuable for readers interested in folklore and the development of children's literature. I enjoyed it, even when I wasn't sure what was being described.
I found this copy in my Mom's things, but I do not remember ever having it read to me. I suspect she bought it because it was old and had an unusual name. It was published in 1941, and one of the opening pages states, "This special edition is published by arrangement with the publishers of the regular edition Henry Holt & Company and E.M. Hale and Company, Eau Claire, Wisconsin." Cadmus Books is printed on the inside of the cover, which must have had a cover jacket at one time.
It is an excellent book in construction, 179 pages in length, with illustrations throughout. We readers are going to miss this level of quality and workmanship, because I don't think it will ever come back.
"Peacock Pie: A Book of Rhymes," is just as strange as the name suggests. Many of the poems are similar to Mother Goose rhymes or songs such as "Three Blind Mice." "Berries," for instance, is a little story about an old woman who meets a fairy who has the inside scoop on where the best blackberries can be found. Old Goodie finds the mother lode of berries, and in gratitude makes a small jar of jam for the fairy. That one is pretty innocent and light-hearted.
The "Thief at Robin's Castle," on the other hand, is a fairly awful tale about a thief who covets every single aspect of his victims' life, so much that he takes not just wealth but the formerly happy children as well:
"But though a moment there his hard heart faltered,
Eftsoones he took them twain,
And slipped them into his Bag with all his Plunder
And soft stole down again."
"Spoon, Platter, Goblet, Ducats, Dishes, Trinkets,
And those two Children dear,
A-quaking, in the clinking and the clanking,
And half bemused with fear..."
For just plain old oddness, however, one can't beat, "The Truants."
"Ere my heart beats too coldly and faintly
To remember sad things, yet be gay,
I would sing a brief song of the world's little children
Magic hath stolen away."
"The primroses scattered by April,
The stars of the wide Milky Way,
Cannot outnumber the hosts of the children
Magic hath stolen away..."
And much more in that vein. I don't think I ever would have read that to my children, and I am a guy who was pretty quick to read "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and "The Hobbit" to my boys.
So, I don't recommend it for young children, but I think this kind of book is valuable for readers interested in folklore and the development of children's literature. I enjoyed it, even when I wasn't sure what was being described.
May 8, 2024
A book of poems for children? Perhaps, if written by Uncle Edgar Allen Poe to niece and nephew Wednesday and Pugsley Addams 💀
While not overtly horrific, the overall atmosphere is of melancholy, loss, death, night and febrile passion.
The opening poem, The Horseman, initially reads as a bit of nonsense nursery rhyme, but then, surely, the pale rider on his ivory horse coming over the moonlit hill can be none other than Death stalking the fitfully sleeping child.
There is an excellent illustration by Emett of the gangling "Thief at Robin's Castle", who steals not only Robin's silverware, but his children, whose hands imploringly poke out of his swag bag. Raised as his own, the children "never really loved him" despite his stolen riches.
I initially thought this would be a slight set of childish rhymes, but they're ageless, dark, macabre and fey, the cumulative effect being greater than the individual poems. I loved them 🖤
Sibelius's "Valse Triste" (Sad Waltz) from his score to the drama "Kuolema" (Death) catches something of the mood:
https://youtu.be/5Ls8-pk4IS4?si=isJZx...
While not overtly horrific, the overall atmosphere is of melancholy, loss, death, night and febrile passion.
The opening poem, The Horseman, initially reads as a bit of nonsense nursery rhyme, but then, surely, the pale rider on his ivory horse coming over the moonlit hill can be none other than Death stalking the fitfully sleeping child.
There is an excellent illustration by Emett of the gangling "Thief at Robin's Castle", who steals not only Robin's silverware, but his children, whose hands imploringly poke out of his swag bag. Raised as his own, the children "never really loved him" despite his stolen riches.
I initially thought this would be a slight set of childish rhymes, but they're ageless, dark, macabre and fey, the cumulative effect being greater than the individual poems. I loved them 🖤
Sibelius's "Valse Triste" (Sad Waltz) from his score to the drama "Kuolema" (Death) catches something of the mood:
https://youtu.be/5Ls8-pk4IS4?si=isJZx...
March 14, 2023
After reading about cancer, blindness and prejudice in the 1940s I needed something light, and here's a free book of children's poetry from Amazon for Kindle. It's certainly showing its' age at 110. I can't say I recognized any of them.
I guess peacock pie was a real thing--
A sample:
I guess peacock pie was a real thing--
A sample:
May 14, 2018
To be honest, I was disappointed. There are one or two gems in here, but for the most part, noting seemed to connect with me. For the most part, the poems disintegrated with forced or incomplete scansion (fine for free verse, but this was clearly not designed as such). Also, though I was hardly the target audience (these poems were aimed at a young audience), I feel that even children contemporaneous with the author would have got more out of the verse of Milne or Lear than De La Mare. It was only the gems I mentioned which lifted this one star to three.
January 9, 2019
A childhood classic
I remember reading many of these poems at a young age and enjoying them. Reading them again brought back the fondness. I think the book I had might have been a more limited collection. I found about a half dozen of them a bit dour and dated, but the rest more than make up for those. They're rhythmic with plenty of rhymes and the language is beautiful. I'm going to try them out on my young grand-daughter who is just beginning to appreciate poetry.
I remember reading many of these poems at a young age and enjoying them. Reading them again brought back the fondness. I think the book I had might have been a more limited collection. I found about a half dozen of them a bit dour and dated, but the rest more than make up for those. They're rhythmic with plenty of rhymes and the language is beautiful. I'm going to try them out on my young grand-daughter who is just beginning to appreciate poetry.
December 27, 2021
Varied between dreamily delightful and just a bit too creepy. The good ones are that good though. I selected the less spooky ones for reading aloud to the children and they are simply transporting. Interesting old British language leads to all sorts of fascinating historical rabbit trails when explaining to them.
November 13, 2019
I read this to my 6turned 7 year old for the first term and we both enjoyed it immensely! He memorized quite a few of the poems and I really enjoy reading them over and over.
This edition of the book is simple yet charming and great quality for a paperback!
This edition of the book is simple yet charming and great quality for a paperback!
October 8, 2024
Lovely collection of rhymes, however, the style was old fashioned and terminology that isn’t used as much anymore may confuse some younger readers. Could be good for studying in a Year 6 English class!
July 6, 2018
My new favorite poet.
April 29, 2022
Walter de la Mar is funny and quirky
October 24, 2017
Whimsical, at times haunting, evocative. Complementary illustrations by Louise Brierley. First published in 1913; some readers may find it dated.
March 25, 2023
✔️Published in 1913.
When I arrived at the following poem, I remember that we had to memorize it in grammar school:
Otherwise, the other poems were entertaining, and should be recommended reading for the children of today.
💥 Recommended.
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
🟢 Media form: Project Gutenberg .
When I arrived at the following poem, I remember that we had to memorize it in grammar school:
TIRED TIM
Poor Tired Tim! It's sad for him.
He lags the long bright morning through,
Ever so tired of nothing to do; He moons and mopes the livelong day,
Nothing to think about, nothing to say;
Up to bed with his candle to creep, Too tired to yawn, too tired to sleep:
Poor Tired Tim! It's sad for him.
Otherwise, the other poems were entertaining, and should be recommended reading for the children of today.
💥 Recommended.
🟣 Media form: Kindle version.
🟢 Media form: Project Gutenberg .
March 18, 2016
There are some lovely little poems in this collection by Walter de la Mare. I would say they are not 'happy happy' poems but rather wistful, thoughtful, enchanting, sometimes filled with melancholy and mystery, often deeper than they may first appear. The Truants features the children 'magic hath stolen away', Wanderers is about the movement of the planets, 'Poor Miss 7' lives lone and alone and Miss T has a strange metabolism 'whatever Miss T eats turns into Miss T'. Then there's the odd Hapless, Tired Tim and The Dunce and the mysterious 'Some one' a poem in a similar vain to my favourite Walter de la Mare poem 'The Listeners'.
February 1, 2022
Reviewing my childhood love of poetry. I elected to read the classics of childhood and this is just one book I chose. Oh what a delight to stroll down memory lane with this. I immersed myself with all its delights this evening and remembered why I have always loved the art of words so much. A wonderful book.
January 22, 2015
i do love poetry so when my uncle bought this for me i devoured it in a few days. i only gave it four stars because there were no real stand out poems in there. they were good poems,interesting to read. not boring.
December 21, 2015
Reading challenge 2015
#book-over-100-years-old
40/50
#book-over-100-years-old
40/50
February 1, 2010
Haunting, weird, impossibly endearing and enduring little classic
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews