The Stranger (de la Mare, 1922)

The Stranger written by Walter de la Mare

Down-Adown-Derry: A Book of Fairy Poems (1922)

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    In the nook of a wood where a pool freshed with dew
    Glassed, daybreak till evening, blue sky glimpsing through
    Then a star; or a slip of May-moon silver-white,
    Thridding softly aloof the quiet of night,
                 Was a thicket of flowers.

    Willow herb, mint, pale speedwell and rattle
    Water hemlock and sundew - to the wind's tittle-tattle
    They nodded, dreamed, swayed in jocund delight,
    In beauty and sweetness arrayed, still and bright.
    By turn scampered rabbit; trotted fox; bee and bird
    Paused droning, sang shrill, and the fair water stirred.
    Plashed green frog, or some brisk little flickering fish -
    Gudgeon, stickleback, minnow - set the ripples a-swish.

    A lone pool, a pool grass-fringed, crystal-clear:
    Deep, placid, and cool in the sweet of the year;
    Edge-parched when the sun to the Dog Days drew near;
    And with winter's bleak rime hard as glass, robed in snow,
    The whole wild-wood sleeping, and nothing a-blow
    But the wind from the North - bringing snow.

    That is all. Save that one long, sweet, June night-tide straying,
    The harsh hemlock's pale umbelliferous bloom
    Tenting nook, dense with fragrance and secret with gloom,
    In a beaming of moon-colored light faintly raying,
    On buds orbed with dew phosphorescently playing,
    Came a Stranger - still-footed, feat-fingered, clear face
    Unhumanly lovely ... and supped in that place.

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