WALTER DE LA MARE DIES

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 28002, 23 June 1956, Page 9

WALTER DE LA MARE DIES

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 22. Walter de la Mare (above), the lupreme English lyric poet of our times, died today in London after a brief illness. He was 83.

It is more than 50 years since his ouiet. consistent voice was first heard in English poetry and since then he had written poetry that epitomised the mystery and the evocative loveliness of the written word—poetry not obviously affected by the violent changes of the contemporary world. The range and quantity of his work was considerable and its uniform excellence remarkable. No contemporary poet had commanded a purer or more spontaneous initial inspiration and none had brought to the aid of inspiration sp cautious and deliberate a craftsmanship. His influence was wide and food. Walter John de la Mare was born in Kent in 1873 and educated at bt Paul’s Cathedral Choir School. At 16, he began working for the AngloAmerican Oil Company and for nearly 20 years literature was for him only a sideline. But the boy who foundeo a magazine at school did not easily give up writing and soon his worK began to appear in the magazines under the name of Walter Ramal; it did not make that name famous. in 1908, de la Mare gave up his onicv work and for the next 30 years lived the life of a professional man oi letters. His books—prose and verse —appeared regularly, he c o n I tn p ut £? to the principal journals and lectured. Atmosphere was his main reason for writing a story. The setting, incidents, characters and even the manner of ipeech were all subservient to that aim. This was strongly exemplified in “On the Edge,” his finest collection ot fantastic tales. His subtle,, viyid and often eerie effects were ootained by means which were almost imperceptible. He could aiso write in lighter vein and his nonsense rhymes are as delightful to grown-up people as to children. . Among his other mam works are “Henry Brocken.” “Memoirs of a Midget,” “The Three Mulla Mulgars, “The Return,” “Broomsticks,” “The Lord Fish.” “Desert Islands,” “Lewis Carroll,” and “The Connoisseur.’ the poems “Peacock Pie,” “Listeners. A Child’s Dav.” “The Sunken Garden. “Motley,” “The Veil.” “Down-Down-Derry.” and “Thus Her Tale,” and the fairy’ plav “Crossings.” He will however, be remembered best for his short lyrics, some of them among the most widely-known of cur time, their opening lines familiar to all who love poetry—“ Here lies a most beautiful lady;” “ ‘Bunches of grapes, says Timothy:” “ ‘ls there anybody there?’ said the Traveller;” “What lovely things thy hahd hath made:” and “Softly along the road of evening”— from “Nod”—which is known to millions. His work was widely recognised. In 1948 he was made a Companion of Honour, and in 1953 was admitted to the exclusive Order of Merit. He held honorary degrees in literature from many colleges

Equipment for N.Z. —An order to Ripply equipment worth many thousands of pounds for New Zealand’s first coaxial telecommunications cable “-linking Auckland and Hamilton —has been placed with the British Automatic Telephone and Electric Company. Ltd.—London. June 21.

The leader of the Italian Communist Party, Mr Palmiro Togliatti, said last Saturday that the prestige of the Soviet Communist Party chief, Mr Khrushchev, and his colleagues, had fallen because they did not oppose the creation of the Stalin myth while he was alive.

On Monday, the French Communist Party’s political bureau said it was ‘‘not right to attribute to Stalin alone everything that had been negative in the activity” of the Soviet Communists.

The statement of the British Communist chiefs said that at a private session at the British party’s twentyfourth national congress on April 1, a resolution was passed and sent to Moscow regretting that a public statement on Mr Khrushchev’s attack on Stalin had not been made by the central committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

The statement added that the party had not recevied any official version of the Khrushchev report. The continued absence of an official report had made many Communists outside the Soviet Union dependent on “enemy sources” for information, and had added unnecessary difficulties to ‘‘estimation and discussion of the fact. ‘‘We consider that the twentieth congress was correct in frankly exposing all the evils which followed from the departure from Leninist principles, in order to put an end to these evils.” All Communists, the statement said, were deeply shocked by the injustices and crime which ‘‘violated the essential principles of socialist democracy and legality and dishonoured the noble cause of communism.” It added: ‘‘ln spite of the grave harm caused by these abuses, the Soviet people achieved very great and historic successes.” The statement said that because of the strengthened position of the Socialist camp, it should now be possible to bring about the abolition of the death penalty in all countries.