Appreciation …

… Mark Ford — Thee, Thou, Twixt: Walter de la Mare  LRB 24 March 2022.

Like Delta blues lyrics, de la Mare’s rhymes rework traditional images into new combinations without imparting to them a scintilla of his own concerns or personality. Metrically flawless, ‘The Horseman’ slides into the reader’s consciousness and incarnates the impossible romance of childhood longing, the mixture of yearning for what is ‘over the hill’ with delight in the chivalric properties of silver helm, pale knight and horse of ‘ivory’.