Walter de la Mare

Here you will find the Poem The Children Of Stare of poet Walter de la Mare

The Children Of Stare

Winter is fallen early 
On the house of Stare; 
Birds in reverberating flocks 
Haunt its ancestral box; 
Bright are the plenteous berries 
In clusters in the air. 


Still is the fountain?s music, 
The dark pool icy still, 
Whereupon a small and sanguine sun 
Floats in a mirror on, 
Into a West of crimson, 
From a South of daffodil. 


?Tis strange to see young children 
In such a wintry house; 
Like rabbits? on the frozen snow 
Their tell-tale footprints go; 
Their laughter rings like timbrels 
?Neath evening ominous: 


Their small and heightened faces 
Like wine-red winter buds; 
Their frolic bodies gentle as 
Flakes in the air that pass, 
Frail as the twirling petal 
From the briar of the woods. 


Above them silence lours, 
Still as an arctic sea; 
Light fails; night falls; the wintry moon 
Glitters; the crocus soon 
Will open grey and distracted 
On earth?s austerity: 


Thick mystery, wild peril, 
Law like an iron rod:? 
Yet sport they on in Spring?s attire, 
Each with his tiny fire 
Blown to a core of ardour 
By the awful breath of God.