Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes - Volume I.

by Walter de la Mare

Walter de la Mare was a 20th century novelist, short story writer and poet. He is best known for his children's stories. His love of imagination made his children's books very popular, but this also may have contributed to his other writings being taken less seriously. The Listeners is his most famous work. This volume contains the following sections: lyrical poems, characters from Shakespeare, sonnets, memories from Childhood, The Listeners, and Motley.

Genres: Poetry

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Walter 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.

Reviews

[Chrystal]

Most of these poems were just OK, but I did mark about 15 of them as exceptionally good, and I would rate the whole collection 5 stars based on these alone, except I've read a couple of other collections which contain his best poems (this is Volume I of his collected poems, not a selection of his best).

I happily stumbled upon a poem ("Fare Well") which I had been looking for, thinking it was by Auden, which contains the haunting lines:

"Look thy last on all things lovely,
Every hour - let no night
Seal thy sense in deathly slumber
Till to delight
Thou have paid thy utmost blessing;
Since that all things thou wouldst praise
Beauty took from those who loved them
In other days."

My favorite though, is "The Linnet:"

"Upon this leafy bush
With thorns and roses in it,
Flutters a thing of light,
A twittering linnet.
And all the throbbing world
Of dew and sun and air
By this small parcel of life
Is made more fair;
As if each bramble-spray
And mounded gold-wreathed furze,
Harebell and little thyme,
Were only hers;
As if this beauty and grace
Did to one bird belong,
And, at a flutter of wing,
Might vanish in song."

[Monique Waddell]

Poetry by de la Mare

The poems are haunting, yet they comfort in their meter. The pastoral scenes with eery wanderers and witches delight the imagination.