The Sleeping Beauty
© Walter John de la Mare (1873-1956),
used by permission of the Trustees of Walter de la Mere
and the Society of Authors as their representative.
[Image: "Sleeping Beauty" by Henry Mynell Rheam]

The scent of bramble fills the air,
Amid her folded sheets she lies,
The gold of evening in her hair,
The blue of morn shut in her eyes.

How many a changing moon hath lit
The unchanging roses of her face!
Her mirror ever broods on it
In silver stillness of the days.

Oft flits the moth on filmy wings
Into his solitary lair;
Shrill evensong the cricket sings
From some still shadow in her hair.

In heat, in snow, in wind, in flood,
She sleeps in lovely loneliness,
Half-folded like an April bud
On winter-haunted trees.

The English poet, short story writer, and novelist Walter John de la Mare (April 25, 1873 — June 22, 1956), is best remembered for his children's literature and for his ominous poem "The Listeners". He worked for eighteen long years in the statistics department of the London office of Standard Oil, all the while struggling to support his family. Through it all he continued to find time to write. In 1908, through the efforts of Sir Henry Newbolt, he received a Civil List pension which enabled him to turn his back on the mundane world of statistics and concentrate on his writing. De la Mare received numerous awards, prizes including the Carnegie Medal, the Companion of Honour, and the Order of Merit, as well as honorary degrees from universities at Cambridge, Oxford, St. Andrews, and London. De la Mare's developed theories about imagination which contributed to the popularity of his children's writing. Unfortunately, it also led to much of his other work being taken less seriously than it deserved.

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