Skip to content
Linespedia

Never-To-Be

Topics: classic

Down by the waters of the sea, Reigns the King of Never-to-be. His palace walls are black with night; His torches star and moons light, And for his timepiece deep and grave Beats on the green unhastening wave. Windswept are his high corridors; His pleasance the sea-mantled shores; For sentinel a shadow stands With hair in heaven, and cloudy hands; And round his bed, king's guards to be, Watch pines in iron solemnity. His hound is mute; his steed at will Roams pastures deep with asphodel; His queen is to her slumber gone; His courtiers mute lie, hewn in stone; He hath forgot where he did hide His sceptre in the mountain-side. Grey-capped and muttering, mad is he - The childless King of Never-to-be; For all his people in the deep Keep everlasting fast asleep; And all his realm is foam and rain, Whispering of what comes not again.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Down by the waters of the sea,..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Walter De La Mare delivers a powerful performance in "Never-To-Be"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?         Have you snared a weeping hare?     Have you whistled, 'No Nunny,'and gunned a poor bunny,"

"Sand, sand; hills of sand;         And the wind where nothing is      Green and sweet of the land;         No grass, no trees,         No bir"

"Like an old battle, youth is wild With bugle and spear, and counter cry, Fanfare and drummery, yet a child Dreaming of that sweet chivalry, T"

"There was nought in the Valley      But a Tower of Ivory, Its base enwreathed with red      Flowers that at evening      Caught the sun's cr"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Have you been catching of fish, Tom Noddy?        ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.