Songs of Childhood | Page 2

important, this is a poetry of charms and spells, witches and
dwarfs, ogres and fairies, full of dangers, omens, riddles and triumphs.
In "The Ogre," for example, two sleeping children are about to be
plucked by an enormous ogre from their home:
Into their dreams no shadow fell
Of his disastrous thumb
Groping
discreet, and gradual,
Across the quiet room.
But he is stopped, spellbound, abashed and defeated by the mother of
the children, who is in another room and, all unaware of the danger, is
singing a version of the Coventry Carol (which, in its original, is
addressed to the Christ Child) as a lullaby to her new-born baby.
I would guess that any child fortunate enough to grow up with these
poems ringing in memory's ear might have a remarkable reservoir of
music and excitement available to him. That is not a small gift.
Anthony Hecht
_ANTHONY HECHT teaches in the English Department of the
University of Rochester. He is the author of several books of poetry, of
which the most recent are_ The Hard Hours _(1967) and_ Aesopic
_(1968). His poems appear in many anthologies and he has contributed
to the_ Hudson Review, _the_ New York Review of Books, Quarterly
Review of Literature, _and other periodicals. He also translated (with
Helen H. Bacon) Aeschylus'_ Seven Against Thebes _(1973)._
WALTER DE LA MARE (1873-1956)
Bibliography of His Books for Children
(Poetry):

_Songs of Childhood._ London 1902.
_A Child's Day: a Book of Rhymes to Pictures by C. W. Cadby._
London 1912.
_Peacock Pie: a Book of Rhymes._ London 1913.
_Down-adown-derry: a Book of Fairy Poems._ London 1922.
_Stuff and Nonsense._ London 1927.
_Poems for Children._ London [1930].
_This Year, Next Year._ London 1937.
_Bells and Grass._ London 1941.
_Collected Rhymes and Verses._ London 1944.
Bibliography of His Books for Children
(Stories, Plays):
_The Three Mulla-mulgars._ London 1910.
_Crossings; a Fairy Play, with Music by E. A. Gibbs._ London 1921.
_Story and Rhyme._ London 1921.
_Broomsticks and Other Tales._ London 1925.
_Miss Jemima._ Oxford [1925].
_Told Again: Traditional Tales._ Oxford 1927.
_Readings: Traditional Tales 1925-1928._ Oxford 1928.
_Old Joe._ Oxford [1927].
_Stories from the Bible._ London 1929.

_The Lord Fish and Other Tales._ London [1933].
_The Old Lion and Other Stories._ London 1942.
_The Magic Jacket and Other Stories._ London 1943.
_The Scarecrow and Other Stories._ London 1944.
_The Dutch Cheese and Other Stories._ London 1946.
_Collected Stories for Children._ London 1947.
Selected References:
Atkins, John W. H. _Walter de la Mare: an Exploration._ London
[1947].
Clark, L. _Walter de la Mare_ (_a Bodley monograph_). London 1960.
McCrosson, D. R. _Walter de la Mare._ New York 1966.
SONGS OF CHILDHOOD
[Illustration: Under the Dock Leaves,
by Richard Doyle.]
Songs of Childhood
By
WALTER RAMAL
_WITH FRONTISPIECE_
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW,
LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1902
CONTENTS
'UNDER THE DOCK LEAVES,' _Frontispiece_ _From a drawing by_

RICHARD DOYLE
_in the possession of_ C. J. LONGMAN, Esq.
Page
THE GNOMIES,
1
BLUEBELLS,
3
LOVELOCKS,
4
O DEAR ME!
5
TARTARY,
6
THE BUCKLE,
8
THE HARE,