RE: Walter de la Mare's Poetry?

[Gnosticangel]

I have very much enjoyed Walter de la Mare's short stories, mainly through "Strangers and Pilgrims" (Tartarus) and "Eight Tales" (Arkham House). But apparently his reputation is firmly rooted in his poetry as well. Can anyone recommend a particular edition that best exemplifies his poetry?

I found this online:

The Market Place

"Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grass
Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

That poem is Walter's signature piece and is actually entitled The Listeners. I would say he is primarily known as a poet and a children's author. His short fiction for mature readers only seems to be discussed in literary horror circles, despite him not writing that many of them.

I have a battered Faber book of The Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare dating from 1906 to 1953. Many of them are ghostly/weird, including a fair amount of the poems he wrote for children. Also, I recommend buying the full three volume set of de la Mare's short fiction in time. In a thread here Druidic criticised the Strangers & Pilgrims book for not paying enough attention to de la Mare's spectral literature, whilst my one criticism is the exact opposite in nature. It perhaps paid too much attention to his stories with overt supernatural themes and missed out on some enigmatic stories the Tartarus readership of Aickman/Machen enthusiasts may enjoy more than conventional supernatural pieces.

Good to have another de la Mare thread on here. Nobody else on the internet is discussing him.

[Gnosticangel]

Prince James Zaleski wrote: "That poem is Walter's signature piece and is actually entitled The Listeners."

Thanks for the correction, Prince!

And, "I have a battered Faber book of The Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare dating from 1906 to 1953. Many of them are ghostly/weird, including a fair amount of the poems he wrote for children. Also, I recommend buying the full three volume set of de la Mare's short fiction in time."

Thanks for the Faber poems reference Prince, I will look that one up.
Re. the short stories missed by "Eight Tales" and "Strangers and Pilgrims," what about "The Collected Tales of Walter de la Mare," edited by Edward Wagenknecht? I have that one but haven't cracked it open yet.

[Hieronimo]

I've always loved de la Mare's most famous poetry collection, Peacock Pie. Nominally for children, it transcends any age divide and conjures up an enchanted, magical world better than anything outside Keats, and often with the simpest of means:

I heard a horseman
Ride over the hill;
The moon shone clear
The Night was still;
His helm was silver,
And pale was he;
The horse he rode
Was of ivory.


Ann, Ann!
Come quick as you can!
There's a fish that talks
In the frying pan.
Out of the fat,
As clear as glass,
He put up his mouth
and moaned Alas!

Mention should also be made of his fine novel of supernatural possession, The Return.

[Calenture]

The Listeners was featured in a Radio 4 programme recently. I'm a bit of a Radio 4/Radio 4 Extra junkie, and a lot of poetry, new and old gets aired these days.

The link below takes you to a recording of De La Mare reading England and The Little Salamander.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07yb85f

The recording of The Listeners is not available right now, but it'll return before long.

The next link is a recording of De La Mare on meeting Thomas Hardy.
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/wa...FUVAGwod0J0A0w

The Listeners is one of the 10 most-requested poems on Radio 4's Poetry Please. The list is here:
10 Most Requested Poems for Radio 4's Poetry Please

Radio 4 also broadcast a series of Walter de la Mare's short stories, many of those recordings now on YouTube, of course.

If you can't get a download of these recordings, try MooO Voice recorder. Dead simple and it works. This link at Softpedia should provide a clean download with no "download helpers": http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime...Recorder.shtml

Convert the file if necessary with DVD Videosoft's Free Audio Converter: http://www.dvdvideosoft.com/?aspxerr...-Converter.htm