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'Stepping Out of the Gloaming' : A Reconsideration of the Poetry of Walter de la Mare

Richard Hawking

Introduction

This study has two main objectives. The initial aim is consider why Walter de la Mare has been viewed, and continues to be viewed, as a minor poet, and to understand why critics have largely ignored his poetry for the majority of the last forty years. The second aim is redress some of the accusations and assumptions that have contributed towards his present academic neglect and propose a cogent argument to suggest that his poetry deserves to receive greater critical attention than it has done in recent years. In order to bring this study up to the present date, the conclusion will consider the present critical attitude to the poetry of de la Mare.
In addressing the main aims of this study, two inter-related points regarding his poetry will thus emerge. The first, which will be considered in greater depth in Chapter Two, is that he had the misfortune to be writing at a time of huge development in English Poetry, and English Literature in general. The rise of Modernism at the time of the First World War had the effect of creating 'new bearings in English poetry', bearings which influential critics such as Leavis subsequently believed were desperately required. In the wake of the eagerness to map a new poetic course de la Mare has often been misread, with this misreading occurring as a result of arguable generalisations being made regarding his poetry. The study will investigate why these generalisations arose (and persist) by considering its relationship with other poetry and movements of the period. De la Mare chose not to follow the route chartered by Leavis, Eliot and the New Critics and has suffered in academic circles ever since. As we will see below, the seeds of his critical neglect were sewn and eagerly watered here.
The second point to emerge is that the positive qualities of his poetry have been obscured following his relegation to the status of minor poet. To a certain extent, the Modernist movement has had the effect of casting a shadow over other notable achievements of the time. Because of this, Chapter Three will seek an illumination by reconsidering a selection of de la Mare's poetry. It will undermine the suggestion that the vast majority of his poetry escapes reality by creating a dream world, and will argue that the accusations that are most frequently levelled at his poetry by critics are, to a certain extent, unjustified. In order to do this, the discussion will offer the view that critics overstate the dichotomy between his work and that of the Modernists, which will be supported by reassessing his romanticism and looking at the influence of symbolism in his work. It will be suggested that de la Mare, together with 'modern' poets such as Yeats and Eliot, was influenced by the French Symbolist Movement of the nineteenth century. This influence, which results from his "fascination with the unconscious"[1] and irrational mind, will be exemplified by considering his employment of symbols (particually those associated with dreams) in order to highlight the allusive and suggestive nature of his poetry.
Finally, by discussing the ironic nature that some of his work exhibits, it shall be argued that de la Mare's use of a romanticism is often a qualified one in which different views are juxtaposed but none necessarily made concrete. This will further support the proposal that, along with Modernists poets, de la Mare did indeed face up to the complexities of (a) reality by displaying self-reflexive qualities. Largely due to a lack of significant development in his poetry (a poem written in 1906 could easily be mistaken for one written forty years later),[2] this study will not propose that de la Mare is either an archetypal Modernist poet or a major poet. However, it will be maintained that it is wrong to for him to be held in opposition to the Modernists and dismissed as merely a poet of escape.

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