Wootten is an exceptional guide, graceful and perceptive but unfussy, open to other interpretations, seemingly delighting at once in de la Mare’s skill and his mischief. A fine poet himself, and a richly musical one, Wootten can deftly sketch a poem’s inner workings. Of “Nobody Knows” he writes, “Hear how the penultimate line of the second verse swells to match the expansiveness of the narrator’s contemplation of the wind as sea” and, on returning to the line in question—“And foaming under the eaves of the roof”—one realizes it has broken its metrical pattern, quietly, without being noticed.
I have loved de la Mare’s since I was a kid. I can still remember reading in the evening newspaper that he had died at 83. I was 14. Here is my review of his novel Memoirs of a Midget.
No comments:
Post a Comment