Satyrday: Sorcery, by Walter de la Mare

SORCERY, by Walter de la Mare

"What voice is that I hear
Crying across the pool?"
"It is the voice of Pan you hear,
Crying his sorceries shrill and clear,
In the twilight dim and cool."

"What song is it he sings,
Echoing from afar;
While the sweet swallow bends her wings,
Filling the air with twitterings,
Beneath the brightening star?"

The woodman answered me,
His faggot on his back:--
"Seek not the face of Pan to see;
Flee from his clear note summoning thee
To darkness deep and black!"

"He dwells in thickest shade,
Piping his notes forlorn
Of sorrow never to be allayed;
Turn from his coverts sad
Of twilight unto morn!"

The woodman passed away
Along the forest path;
His ax shone keen and grey
In the last beams of day:
And all was still as death:--

Only Pan singing sweet
Out of Earth's fragrant shade;
I dreamed his eyes to meet,
And found but shadow laid
Before my tired feet.

Comes no more dawn to me,
Nor bird of open skies.
Only his woods' deep gloom I see
Till, at the end of all, shall rise,
Afar and tranquilly,
Death's stretching sea.

The Three Royal Monkeys: Pictures and Poem

The Mulla-Mulgars' Journey Song

That one
Alone
Who's dared, and gone
To seek the Magic Wonderstone,
No fear,
Or care,
Or black despair,
Shall heed until his journey's done.

Who knows
Where blows
The Mulgars' rose,
In valleys 'neath unmelting snows--
All secrets
He
Shall pierce and see,
And walk unharmed where'er he goes.


The Three Mulla-Mulgars (or The Three Royal Monkeys, as it is sometimes titled) by Walter de la Mare is a wonderful children's book first published in the USA in 1919. It is full of adventure, beautiful poetic imagery, and magic. It is the story of three monkey brothers who, after the death of their mother, try to journey back to the fabled land their royal father came from and to which he had returned long ago. Along the way Thumb, Thimble, and little Nod face cannibalistic apes, fierce panthers, and harsh landscapes, aided only by their strength, wits, and the magical Wonderstone that their father left them. I'm surprised no one has optioned this tale for a movie yet. The illustrations are by Dorothy Lathrop.

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.