Sunday 23 February 2014

Sunday War Poets....







Walter  John de la Mare

1873 - 1958



Happy England

Now each man's mind all Europe is;
Courage and fear in dread array
Daze each true heart; O grave and wise,
Abide in hope the judgement day.

This war of millions in arms
In myriad replica we wage;
Unmoved, then, soul by earth's alarms
The dangers of the dark engage.

Remember happy England: keep
For her bright cause thy latest breath.
Her peace that long hath lulled to sleep
May now exact the sleep of death

Her woods and wilds, her loveliness
With harvest now are richly at rest;
Safe in her isled securities
Thy children's heaven is her breast;

O what a deep, contented night
The sun from out her eastern seas
Would bring the dust which in her sight
Had given its all for these!



First published in The Times Literary Supplement
27 August 1914

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Sir Walter de la Mare was born in Charlton, Kent, in the south of England, of well-to-do parents. His father, James Edward Delamare, was an official of the Bank of England. His mother, Lucy Sophia (Browning) Delamare, was related to the poet Robert Browning. Walter de la Mare is best remembered for his works for children and for his poem The Listeners.

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