The Huntsmen by Walter de la Mare
The Huntsmen by Walter de la Mare Three jolly gentlemen, In coats of red, Rode their horses Up to bed. Three jolly gentlemen Snored till morn, Their horses champing The golden corn. Three jolly gentlemen At break of day, Came clitter-clatter down the stairs And galloped away. ————— The End And that’s the End of […]
The Ghost by Walter de la Mare
The Ghost by Walter de la Mare Peace in thy hands, Peace in thine eyes, Peace on thy brow; Flower of a moment in the eternal hour, Peace with me now. Not a wave breaks, Not a bird calls, My heart, like a sea, Silent after a storm that hath died, Sleeps within me. All […]
Snow by Walter de la Mare
Snow by Walter de la Mare No breath of wind, No gleam of sun – Still the white snow Whirls softly down Twig and bough And blade and thorn All in an icy Quiet, forlorn. Whispering, rustling, Through the air On still and stone, Roof,; everywhere, It heaps its powdery Crystal flakes, Of every tree […]
The Mocking Fairy by Walter de la Mare
The Mocking Fairy by Walter de la Mare ‘Won’t you look out of your window, Mrs. Gill?’ Quoth the Fairy, nidding, nodding in the garden; ‘Can’t you look out of your window, Mrs. Gill?’ Quoth the Fairy, laughing softly in the garden; But the air was still, the cherry boughs were still, And the ivy-tod […]
The Keys of Morning by Walter de la Mare
The Keys of Morning by Walter de la Mare While at her bedroom window once, Learning her task for school, Little Louisa lonely sat In the morning clear and cool, She slanted her small bead-brown eyes Across the empty street, And saw Death softly watching her In the sunshine pale and sweet. His was a […]
The Fool Rings His Bells by Walter de la Mare
The Fool Rings His Bells by Walter de la Mare Come, Death, I’d have a word with thee; And thou, poor Innocency; And Love — a lad with broken wing; Apnd Pity, too; The Fool shall sing to you, As Fools will sing. Ay, music hath small sense, And a tune’s soon told, And Earth […]
Sunk Lyonesse by Walter de la Mare
Sunk Lyonesse by Walter de la Mare In sea-cold Lyonesse, When the Sabbath eve shafts down On the roofs, walls, belfries Of the foundered town, The Nereids pluck their lyres Where the green translucency beats, And with motionless eyes at gaze Make ministrely in the streets. And the ocean water stirs In salt-worn casement and […]
Some One by Walter de la Mare
Some One by Walter de la Mare Some one came knocking At my wee, small door; Someone 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 […]
Silver by Walter de la Mare
Silver by Walter de la Mare Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel, like a log, With paws of silver sleeps […]
Old Susan by Walter de la Mare
Old Susan by Walter de la Mare When Susan’s work was done, she’d sit With one fat guttering candle lit, And window opened wide to win The sweet night air to enter in; There, with a thumb to keep her place She’d read, with stern and wrinkled face. Her mild eyes gliding very slow Across […]
November by Walter de la Mare
November by Walter de la Mare There is wind where the rose was, Cold rain where sweet grass was, And clouds like sheep Stream o’er the steep Grey skies where the lark was. Nought warm where your hand was, Nought gold where your hair was, But phantom, forlorn, Beneath the thorn, Your ghost where your […]
Miss Loo by Walter de la Mare
Miss Loo by Walter de la Mare When thin-strewn memory I look through, I see most clearly poor Miss Loo, Her tabby cat, her cage of birds, Her nose, her hair — her muffled words, And how she’d open her green eyes, As if in some immense surprise, Whenever as we sat at tea, She […]
Melmillo by Walter de la Mare
Melmillo by Walter de la Mare Three and thirty birds there stood In an elder in a wood; Called Melmillo — flew off three, Leaving thirty in the tree; Called Melmillo — nine now gone, And the boughs held twenty-one; Called Melmillo — and eighteen Left but three to nod and preen; Called Melmillo — […]
How Sleep the Brave by Walter de la Mare
How Sleep the Brave by Walter de la Mare Nay, nay, sweet England, do not grieve! Not one of these poor men who died But did within his soul believe That death for thee was glorified. Ever they watched it hovering near That mystery ‘yond thought to plumb, Perchance sometimes in loathèd fear They heard […]
Bones by Walter de la Mare
Bones by Walter de la Mare Said Mr. Smith, “I really cannot Tell you, Dr. Jones— The most peculiar pain I’m in— I think it’s in my bones.” Said Dr. Jones, “Oh, Mr. Smith, That’s nothing. Without doubt We have a simple cure for that; It is to take them out.” He laid forthwith poor […]
At Ease by Walter de la Mare
At Ease by Walter de la Mare Most wounds can Time repair; But some are mortal — these: For a broken heart there is no balm, No cure for a heart at ease — At ease, but cold as stone, Though the intellect spin on, And the feat and practiced face may show Nought of […]
All That’s Past by Walter de la Mare
All That’s Past by Walter de la Mare Very old are the woods; And the buds that break Out of the brier’s boughs, When March winds wake, So old with their beauty are– Oh, no man knows Through what wild centuries Roves back the rose. Very old are the brooks; And the rills that rise […]
Alexander by Walter de la Mare
Alexander by Walter de la Mare It was the Great Alexander, Capped with a golden helm, Sate in the ages, in his floating ship, In a dead calm. Voices of sea-maids singing Wandered across the deep: The sailors labouring on their oars Rowed as in sleep. All the high pomp of Asia, Charmed by that […]
A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare
A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare A song of Enchantment I sang me there, In a green-green wood, by waters fair, Just as the words came up to me I sang it under the wild wood tree. Widdershins turned I, singing it low, Watching the wild birds come and go; No cloud […]
Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare
Nicholas Nye by Walter de la Mare Thistle and darnell and dock grew there, And a bush, in the corner, of may, On the orchard wall I used to sprawl In the blazing heat of the day; Half asleep and half awake, While the birds went twittering by, And nobody there my lone to share […]
Napoleon by Walter de la Mare
Napoleon by Walter de la Mare ‘What is the world, O soldiers? It is I: I, this incessant snow, This northern sky; Soldiers, this solitude Through which we go Is I.’ ————— The End And that’s the End of the Poem © Poetry Monster, 2021. Poems by topic and subject. Poetry Monster — the ultimate repository […]
An Epitaph by Walter de la Mare
An Epitaph by Walter de la Mare Here lies a most beautiful lady, Light of step and heart was she; I think she was the most beautiful lady That ever was in the West Country. But beauty vanishes, beauty passes; However rare — rare it be; And when I crumble,who will remember This lady of […]