Chicken

Clapping her platter stood plump Bess,
    And all across the green
Came scampering in, on wing and claw,
    Chicken fat and lean:
Dorking, Spaniard, Cochin China,
    Bantams sleek and small,
Like feathers blown in a great wind,
    They came at Bessie's call.

Walter De La Mare

Walter De La Mare was an English poet, short story writer, and novelist, best remembered for his works for children and his poem "The Listeners". Born in 1873 in Charlton, Kent, De La Mare's unique blend of haunting, dreamlike imagery and masterful command of language earned him a lasting place in English literature. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1953, and his works continue to be celebrated for their ethereal and evocative quality.

Walter De La Mare

The Tryst

Walter De La Mare, Simple Poetry

The Marionettes

Walter De La Mare, Simple Poetry

Exile

Walter De La Mare, Simple Poetry

The Moth

Walter De La Mare, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The Little Bird

My dear Daddie bought a mansion
    For to bring my Mammie to,
In a hat with a long feather,
    And a trailing gown of blue;
And a company of fiddlers
    And a rout of maids and men
Danced the clock round to the morning,
    In a gay house-warming then.
And when all the guests were gone, and
    All was still as still can be,
In from the dark ivy hopped a
    Wee small bird: and that was Me.

Walter De La Mare

Lays Of Sorrow

The day was wet, the rain fell souse
Like jars of strawberry jam, (1) a
sound was heard in the old henhouse,
A beating of a hammer.
Of stalwart form, and visage warm,
Two youths were seen within it,
Splitting up an old tree into perches for their poultry
At a hundred strokes (2) a minute.
The work is done, the hen has taken
Possession of her nest and eggs,
Without a thought of eggs and bacon, (3)
(Or I am very much mistaken happy)
She turns over each shell,
To be sure that all's well,
Looks into the straw
To see there's no flaw,
Goes once round the house, (4)
Half afraid of a mouse,
Then sinks calmly to rest
On the top of her nest,
First doubling up each of her legs.
Time rolled away, and so did every shell,
"Small by degrees and ...

Lewis Carroll

The Mother Bird

Through the green twilight of a hedge
I peered, with cheek on the cool leaves pressed,
And spied a bird upon a nest:
Two eyes she had beseeching me
Meekly and brave, and her brown breast
Throbb'd hot and quick above her heart;
And then she oped her dagger bill, -
'Twas not a chirp, as sparrows pipe
At break of day; 'twas not a trill,
As falters through the quiet even;
But one sharp solitary note,
One desperate, fierce, and vivid cry
Of valiant tears, and hopeless joy,
One passionate note of victory:
Off, like a fool afraid, I sneaked,
Smiling the smile the fool smiles best,
At the mother bird in the secret hedge
Patient upon her lonely nest.

Walter De La Mare

A Fowl Affair.

I hope I'm not too orthodox
    To give a joke away,
That took me like the chicken-pox
    And left a debt to pay.

Let argument ignore the cost,
    If it be dear or cheap,
And only claim that naught be lost
    When it's too good to keep.

The proverb says "All flesh is grass,"
    But this I do deny,
Because of that which came to pass,
    But not to pass me by.

A body weighing by the pound
    Inside of half a score,
In case and cordage safely bound,
    Was landed at my door.

What could it be? for friends are slack,
    And give, I rather trow,
When they are sure of getting back
    As much as they bestow.

My hair, at thought of dark design,
    Or dynamitish fate,
Stood up like quills of porcupine...

Hattie Howard

Allie.

Allie, call the birds in,
    The birds from the sky.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
    Down they all fly.
First there came
Two white doves
    Then a sparrow from his nest,
Then a clucking bantam hen,
    Then a robin red-breast.

Allie, call the beasts in,
    The beasts, every one.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
    In they all run.
First there came
Two black lambs,
    Then a grunting Berkshire sow,
Then a dog without a tail,
    Then a red and white cow.

Allie, call the fish up,
    The fish from the stream.
Allie calls, Allie sings,
    Up they all swim.
First there came
Two gold fish,
    A minnow and a miller's thumb,
Then a pair of loving trout,
    Then the twisted eels come.

Allie, call ...

Robert von Ranke Graves

Longlegs

Longlegs - he yelled 'Coo-ee!'
    And all across the combe
Shrill and shrill it rang - rang through
    The clear green gloom.
Fairies there were a-spinning,
    And a white tree-maid
Lifted her eyes, and listened
    In her rain-sweet glade.
Bunnie to bunnie stamped; old Wat
    Chin-deep in bracken sate;
A throstle piped, 'I'm by, I'm by!'
    Clear to his timid mate.
And there was Longlegs, straddling,
    And hearkening was he,
To distant Echo thrilling back
    A thin 'Coo-ee!'

Walter De La Mare