Monday, January 12, 2009

John Mouldy: Favorite Poems

JOHN MOULDY

I spied John Mouldy in his cellar,
Deep down twenty steps of stone;
In the dusk he sat a-smiling,
A-smiling there alone.

He read no book, he snuffed no candle;
The rats ran in, the rats ran out;
And far and near the drip of water
Went whisp'ring about.

The dusk was still, with dew a-falling,
I saw the Dog Star bleak and grim,
I saw a slim brown rat of Norway
Creep over him.

I spied John Mouldy in his cellar,
Deep down twenty steps of stone;
In the dusk he sat a-smiling,
A-smiling there alone.

--Walter De la Mare.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's creepy/cool! Is that an illustration of the poem or one that you found that fit? It's great!

Brer said...

I got the picture from Peter Haining's book TERROR!, about pulp horror illustrations, if you remember. The full picture was even more appropriate, as it had a rat on it's knee, but I couldn't get it because it was too close to the spine. It was originally for a short story.