Walter John de la Mare 

(pronounced /ˈdɛləmɛər/[1]), OM CH (25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an

English poet, short story writer and novelist, probably best remembered for his works for children and
"The Listeners".

He was born in Kent (at 83 Maryon Road, Charlton[2], now part of the London Borough of Greenwich),
descended from a family of French Huguenots, and was educated at St Paul's Cathedral School.

His first book, Songs of Childhood, was published under the name Walter Ramal. He worked in the
statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil for eighteen years while struggling to bring up a
family, but nevertheless found enough time to write, and, in 1908, through the efforts ofSir Henry
Newbolt he received a Civil List pension which enabled him to concentrate on writing.

De la Mare also wrote some subtle psychological horror stories; "Seaton's Aunt" and "Out of the Deep"
are noteworthy examples. His 1921 novel, Memoirs of a Midget, won the James Tait Black Memorial
Prize for fiction.

Page Back Poems Index Sleep a poem by Walter de la Mare

SLEEP
Walter de la Mare

When all, and birds, and creeping beasts,

When the dark of night is deep,
From the moving wonder of their lives
Commit themselves to sleep.

Without a thought, or fear, they shut

The narrow gates of sense;
Heedless and quiet, in slumber turn
Their strength to impotence.

The transient strangeness of the earth

Their spirits no more see:
Within a silent gloom withdrawn,
They slumber in secrecy.

Two worlds they have--a globe forgot,

 Wheeling from dark to light;
And all the enchanted realm of dream
That burgeons out of night.
 

Sleep a poem by Walter de la Mare

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