Walter de la Mare’s collection contains over eighty poems organized into thematic sections like Up and Down, Boys and Girls, and Witches and Fairies. The verses depict rural English life through encounters with local wildlife, village characters like the berry-picking Jim Jay, and household spirits. The subjects range from the mundane rituals of farm work and childhood games to unsettling brushes with the supernatural. De la Mare uses complex rhythmic structures and precise imagery to describe shadows, silver moonlight, and the hidden habits of owls, cats, and kings.
Children and adults read these rhymes for their atmospheric shift between whimsical observation and Gothic mystery. The book appeals to those who value technical mastery in verse and a view of childhood that includes both playfulness and genuine solitude. Readers walk away with a heightened awareness of the strange qualities found in the natural world. The text provides a vocabulary for the uncanny and a sense that the everyday landscape is populated by unseen forces and sudden, vivid memories.
- Published
- 1913
- Language
- EN
