Last time in our Halloween series I reported that Edgar Allan Poe had movies made from some of his poems — well, sort of.  Today’s poet Walter de la Mare’s poetry, in title and under his name, wouldn’t have served for such, because so much of what de la Mare does is understated and inferred. He’s one of those poets that when read casually seems to not be doing as much as he’s actually doing. There may be no fireworks going off when you read a de la Mare poem of the supernatural— until after reading it once and remembering the poem later, you may sense the flash-bang-backs of what’s there and evoked.

Today’s Walter de la Mare piece “The Song of Finis”  is an example. It seems simple enough to be children’s poetry, and indeed his publisher bound selections of de la Mare’s more whimsical short poems to market them as children’s books. “The Song of Finis”  presents an eerie short scene and situation, supplying only the barest of details still rich in specificity, and wraps it all in some fine word-music that urged me to make a song of this proclaimed song.

I present these chord sheets so that you can sing these songs yourself.

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We have a knight, but one out of his time, yet still errant. The once shining armor is rusted.*  When he lifts his helmet visor, we see yet “skin and bone,” a choice that lets us imagine a gaunt face suggesting the skull beneath. He’s alone somewhere warm and windless (warm enough to summon the tea-time image of steeping).

There are but two lonely sounds of dialog recorded. His horse whinnies knowing something’s up, and the knight calls out “Lone for an end!” The latter is a bit poetic-dictiony, but I’ll allow it to depict the out-of-time knight, and I suspect de la Mare wants us to hear “lone” as double-sounding for “long.”

What happens in the poem’s conclusion? Does the knight and horse charge off some cliff to end his anachronism? Or is he challenging that empty place he finds himself in with that single cry that has no answer? My thought, it’s sort of both, the song of “Finis” is about endless endings, and the desire for one last adventure.

In de la Mare’s poem there are no angels

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You can hear my song setting of Walter de la Mare’s “The Song of Finis”  with the audio player gadget below. It’s not finis is you can’t see that audio player, as I supply this highlighted link that will open a new tab with its own audio player. Not finis for me either this year, for my plans are to return soon with at least one more de la Mare fantasy piece before this Halloween charges into memory.

*As a fan of the 20^th century Rock group Procul Harum, I wondered if the band’s lyricist Keith Reid read de la Mare’s poem once and remembered it in his song “Conquistador.”