Songs of Childhood

by Walter Ramal
[Walter de la Mare]

with a preface
for the Garland edition by

Anthony Hecht

Garland Publishing, Inc., New York & London

1976

Bibliographical note:

This facsimile has been made
from a copy in the
Beinecke Library of Yale University.
(Iq.D373.902)

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
De La Mare, Walter John, 1873-1956.
Songs of childhood.

(Classics of children's literature, 1621-1932)

Reprint of the 1902 ed. published by Longmans, Green, London, New York.

"Walter de la Mare (1873-1956), bibliography of his books for children": p.

SUMMARY: A collection of forty-seven poems about subjects and experiences familiar to children.

[1. English poetry] I. Title. II. Series.
[PR6007.E3S6 1976] 821'.9'12 75-32200
ISBN 0-8240-2310-2

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

The Romantic poets rediscovered a pastoral and Biblical dream: that a child was the most innocent and the wisest of us all. Wordsworth hailed him as "Mighty Prophet! Seer blest!" And in the next generation Victorian novelists took that dream seriously enough to make children the heroes and heroines of their most searching fictions. There had been no "children's literature" to speak of before, except for the oral and "popular" tradition, including lullabies and Mother Goose, some of which go back as far as Tudor and even medieval times.

Children's literature today is an immense and complex domain; and leaving aside for the present the works composed by children themselves, what remains varies tremendously in skill and delight, as well as in subtlety and intention. So I shall also set aside those minimal "vocabulary-building" tales and verses whose small virtues are rarely more than therapeutic, and direct myself only to that specialized but most important category—poems written by a skilled and adult poet but addressed to an audience of children who are likely to be read to until they are skillful enough to read the same verses for themselves.

The dangers for the poet in addressing so composite an audience are enormous: cuteness, coyness, archness and condescension are only the most obvious ones. Some great writers of children's verse—Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear—have successfully hedged themselves against these dangers by insistent comedy and parody (Carroll's "serious" children's verse is maudlin and embarrassing). By this means they have contrived what the child will take as lovely, unintimidating, mysterious, rational nonsense, and what the adult will recognize as a travesty or burlesque of something very edgy indeed. Thus, Lear's "The Dong with the Luminous Nose" and Carroll's "Jabberwocky" are, respectively, bright and disguised versions of gothic terror and misery on the one hand, and medieval knightly exploit on the other, both rendered innocuous for the nursery and ridiculous for the adult. The risks of seriousness have been successfully avoided.

The poetry of Walter de la Mare sings boldly and beautifully without any of these hedges and condescensions. His work has the honest candor of the border ballads and the fairy tales: as well as unmitigated joys, they are full of the dangers and horrors and sorrows that every child soon knows to be part of the world, however vainly parents try to veil them. A child's curiosity about the forbidden will insist on being satisfied; and better by verse than otherwise. This poetry is also musically astute and demanding; it may surprise and alert the parental reader; and it has its share of archaisms and poeticisms, which, contrary to adult surmise, bemuse and fascinate children. And it must be admitted that it is also relentlessly British; but then, so is much good children's literature.

As a poet (he was also a gifted novelist and short-story writer) de la Mare was praised by T. S. Eliot ("the delicate, invisible web you wove") and by W. H. Auden ("there are no good poems which are only for children"). His technical and linguistic skills are not, as Auden rightly points out, a matter of indifference to children, who are in the very business of learning language, as well as other facts of life, and who are particularly sensitive to verbal rhythms, as Iona and Peter Opie have splendidly demonstrated in The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren.

Just as 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

Songs of Childhood

By

WALTER RAMAL

WITH FRONTISPIECE

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1902

CONTENTS

[ ]

THE GNOMIES

As I lay awake in the white moonlight,

I heard a sweet singing in the wood—

'Out of bed,

Sleepyhead,

Put your white foot now,

Here are we,

'Neath the tree,

Singing round the root now!'

I looked out of window in the white moonlight,

The trees were like snow in the wood—

'Come away

Child and play,

Light wi' the gnomies;

In a mound,

Green and round,

That's where their home is!

'Honey sweet,

Curds to eat,

Cream and frumènty,

Shells and beads,

Poppy seeds,

You shall have plenty.'

But soon as I stooped in the dim moonlight

To put on my stocking and my shoe,

The sweet, sweet singing died sadly away,

And the light of the morning peep'd through:

Then 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.

[ ]

O DEAR ME!

Here are crocuses, white, gold, grey!

'O dear me!' says Marjorie May;

Flat as a platter the blackberry blows:

'O dear me!' says Madeleine Rose;

The leaves are fallen, the swallows flown:

'O dear me!' says Humphrey John;

Snow lies thick where all night it fell:

'O dear me!' says Emmanuel.

[ ]

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 should 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 all my meals should summon me,

And in my courtyards bray;

And in the evenings lamps should 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 small, and 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 'em 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 her lissome ear,

And she eyed the moon so bright,

And she nibbled o' the green;

And I whispered 'Whsst! 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 wagon 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 whisp'ring 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 twenty steps of stone;

In the dusk he sat a-smiling,

Smiling there alone.

[ ]

THE FLY

How large unto the tiny fly

Must little things appear!—

A rosebud like a feather bed,

Its prickle like a spear;

A dewdrop like a looking-glass,

A hair like golden wire;

The smallest grain of mustard-seed

As fierce as coals of fire;

A loaf of bread, a lofty hill;

A wasp, a cruel leopard;

And specks of salt as bright to see

As lambkins to a shepherd.

[ ]

SONG

O for a moon to light me home!

O for a lanthorn green!

For those sweet stars the Pleiades,

That glitter in the twilight trees;

O for a lovelorn taper! O

For a lanthorn green!

O for a frock of tartan!

O for clear, wild, grey eyes!

For fingers light as violets,

'Neath branches that the blackbird frets;

O for a thistly meadow! O

For clear, wild grey eyes!

O for a heart like almond boughs!

O for sweet thoughts like rain!

O for first-love like fields of grey,

Shut April-buds at break of day!

O for a sleep like music!

For still dreams like rain!

[ ]

I SAW THREE WITCHES

I saw three witches

That bowed down like barley,

And took to their brooms 'neath a louring sky,

And, mounting a storm-cloud,

Aloft on its margin,

Stood black in the silver as up they did fly.

I saw three witches

That mocked the poor sparrows

They carried in cages of wicker along,

Till a hawk from his eyrie

Swooped down like an arrow,

And smote on the cages, and ended their song.

I saw three witches

That sailed in a shallop,

All turning their heads with a truculent smile,

Till a bank of green osiers

Concealed their grim faces,

Though I heard them lamenting for many a mile.

I saw three witches

Asleep in a valley,

Their heads in a row, like stones in a flood,

Till the moon, creeping upward,

Looked white through the valley,

And turned them to bushes in bright scarlet bud.

[ ]

THE SILVER PENNY

'Sailorman, I'll give to you'

My bright silver penny,'

If out to sea you'll sail me'

And my dear sister Jenny.'

'Get in, young sir, I'll sail ye'

And your dear sister Jenny,'

But pay she shall her golden locks'

Instead of your penny.'

They sail away, they sail away,'

O fierce the winds blew!'

The foam flew in clouds,'

And dark the night grew!

And all the wild sea-water'

Climbed steep into the boat;'

Back to the shore again'

Sail they will not.

Drowned is the sailorman,'

Drowned is sweet Jenny,'

And drowned in the deep sea'

A bright silver penny.

[ ]

THE NIGHT-SWANS

'Tis silence on the enchanted lake,

And silence in the air serene,

Save for the beating of her heart,

The lovely-eyed Evangeline.