His reputation was at its height during the decade which began with
The Listeners, saw the publication
of Motley and Other Poems in 1918, and ended with
The Veil and Other Poems in 1921. In the 1920s he concentrated on prose fiction and children's books, but after an interval of twelve years he returned to serious poetry with
The Fleeting and Other Poems (1933); poetry was his main concern thereafter. The stories have remained popular and have been often reprinted; several critics, for example, Forrest Reid, G. K. Chesterton, and D. R. McCrosson, have a high opinion of them. The mental worlds of de la Mare's fiction and of his verse are essentially the same, but his characteristic preoccupations receive less serious treatment in the stories than in the poems. The prose is often mannered—too "poetical," in fact—and sometimes arch and whimsical. The volumes of children's verse have a deserved reputation; moreover, an occasional poem in them will appeal to adult taste; but in the assessment of de la Mare's standing as a poet they can be left to one side.
Walter de la Mare lived a life of personal relationships and private reflection; he was never a "literary figure." He was always reluctant to give information about himself; there are few facts for the biographer, and indeed no biography has been written.
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