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

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Title: Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes
Volume II.
Author: Walter de la Mare
Release Date: April 14, 2004 [EBook #12032]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
? START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLLECTED POEMS 1901-1918 ***
Produced by Ted Garvin and PG Distributed Proofreaders
COLLECTED POEMS
1901-1918
BY
WALTER DE LA MARE
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II
1920

CONTENTS
SONGS OF CHILDHOOD: 1901
TO JILL--?SLEEPYHEAD?BLUEBELLS?LOVELOCKS?TARTARY?THE BUCKLE?THE HARE?BUNCHES OF GRAPES?JOHN MOULDY?THE FLY?SONG?I SAW THREE WITCHES?THE SILVER PENNY?THE RAINBOW?THE FAIRIES DANCING?REVERIE?THE THREE BEGGARS?THE DWARF?ALULVAN?THE PEDLAR?THE OGRE?DAME HICKORY?THE PILGRIM?THE GAGE?AS LUCY WENT A-WALKING?THE ENGLISHMAN?THE PHANTOM?THE MILLER AND HIS SON?DOWN-ADOWN-DERRY?THE SUPPER?THE ISLE OF LONE?SLEEPING BEAUTY?THE HORN?CAPTAIN LEAN?THE PORTRAIT OF A WARRIOR?HAUNTED?THE RAVEN'S TOMB?THE CHRISTENING?THE FUNERAL?THE MOTHER BIRD?THE CHILD IN THE STORY GOES TO BED?THE LAMPLIGHTER?I MET AT EVE?LULLABY?ENVOI
[Transcriber's Note: Because the remainder of this volume is available elsewhere in the PG archive, it is not included here.]

SONGS OF CHILDHOOD: 1901
TO JILL

SLEEPYHEAD
As I lay awake in the white moonlight,?I heard a faint singing in the wood,
"Out of bed,?Sleepyhead,?Put your white foot, now;?Here are we?Beneath the tree?Singing round the root now."
I looked out of window, in the white moonlight,?The leaves were like snow in the wood--
"Come away,?Child, and play?Light with the gnomies;?In a mound,?Green and round,?That's where their home is."
"Honey sweet,?Curds to eat,?Cream and frumenty,?Shells and beads,?Poppy seeds,?You shall have plenty."
But, as soon as I stooped in the dim moonlight?To put on my stocking and my shoe,?The sweet shrill singing echoed faintly away,?And the grey of the morning peeped through,?And instead of the gnomies there came a red robin?To sing of the buttercups and dew.
BLUEBELLS
Where the bluebells and the wind are,
Fairies in a ring I spied,?And I heard a little linnet
Singing near beside.
Where the primrose and the dew are--
Soon were sped the fairies all:?Only now the green turf freshens,
And the linnets call.
LOVELOCKS
I watched the Lady Caroline?Bind up her dark and beauteous hair;?Her face was rosy in the glass,?And 'twixt the coils her hands would pass,
White in the candleshine.
Her bottles on the table lay,?Stoppered, yet sweet of violet;?Her image in the mirror stooped?To view those locks as lightly looped
As cherry boughs in May.
The snowy night lay dim without,?I heard the Waits their sweet song sing;?The window smouldered keen with frost;?Yet still she twisted, sleeked and tossed
Her beauteous hair about.
TARTARY
If I were Lord of Tartary,?Myself and me alone,?My bed should be of ivory,?Of beaten gold my throne;?And in my court would peacocks flaunt,?And in my forests tigers haunt,?And in my pools great fishes slant?Their fins athwart the sun.
If I were Lord of Tartary,?Trumpeters every day?To every meal should summon me,?And in my courtyard bray;?And in the evening lamps would shine,?Yellow as honey, red as wine,?While harp, and flute, and mandoline,?Made music sweet and gay.
If I were Lord of Tartary,?I'd wear a robe of beads,?White, and gold, and green they'd be--?And clustered thick as seeds;?And ere should wane the morning-star,?I'd don my robe and scimitar,?And zebras seven should draw my car?Through Tartary's dark glades.
Lord of the fruits of Tartary,?Her rivers silver-pale!?Lord of the hills of Tartary,?Glen, thicket, wood, and dale!?Her flashing stars, her scented breeze,?Her trembling lakes, like foamless seas,?Her bird-delighting citron-trees?In every purple vale!
THE BUCKLE
I had a silver buckle,?I sewed it on my shoe,?And 'neath a sprig of mistletoe?I danced the evening through.
I had a bunch of cowslips,?I hid them in a grot,?In case the elves should come by night?And me remember not.
I had a yellow riband,?I tied it in my hair,?That, walking in the garden,?The birds might see it there.
I had a secret laughter,?I laughed it near the wall:?Only the ivy and the wind?May tell of it at all.
THE HARE
In the black furrow of a field?I saw an old witch-hare this night;?And she cocked a lissome ear,?And she eyed the moon so bright,?And she nibbled of the green;?And I whispered "Wh-s-st! witch-hare,"?Away like a ghostie o'er the field?She fled, and left the moonlight there.
BUNCHES OF GRAPES
"Bunches of grapes," says Timothy;?"Pomegranates pink," says Elaine;?"A junket of cream and a cranberry tart
For me," says Jane.
"Love-in-a-mist," says Timothy;?"Primroses pale," says Elaine;?"A nosegay of pinks and mignonette
For me," says Jane.
"Chariots of gold," says Timothy;?"Silvery wings," says Elaine;?"A bumpity ride in a waggon of hay
For me," says Jane.
JOHN MOULDY
I spied John Mouldy in his cellar,?Deep down twenty steps of stone;?In the dusk he sat a-smiling,
Smiling there alone.
He read no book, he snuffed no candle;?The rats ran in, the rats ran out;?And far and near, the drip of water
Went whispering about.
The dusk was still, with dew a-falling,?I saw the Dog Star bleak and grim,?I saw a slim brown rat of Norway
Creep over him.
I spied John Mouldy in his cellar,?Deep down