Walter de la Mare has always been known as a writer of fantasy and supernatural fiction. It is proposed here that he is, in fact, concerned with exploration of the conscious and unconscious selves. His exploration is more philosophical than psychological in that he makes no use of Freudian formulas. He follows rather the intuitive approach of Jung but uses the media of fiction and, thereby, imagery, to show the possibilities of man's infinite mind. He uses images of doors, windows, water and mirrors to show how the conscious and unconscious selves, the real and astral selves, are divided by lack of understanding, by refusal to accept the other, and by total denial of one another. But he shows also how they may be united across these barriers once they are seen as thresholds between one and the other, that union of the two selves as one integral whole makes for happiness in understanding. He uses the present as an image of the threshold between past and future in which the individual stands in command of primeval memory and his future experience. In all his prose fiction, de la Mare is concerned with man in his present, real, world crossing the boundary into the world of the spirit, the astral world. The real self, the physical human body, serves as container for the spiritual, though the make-up of that unconscious self should, ideally, be seen in the face. It is attainment of that ideal which is a major theme in de la Mare's prose fiction. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation offers a revaluation of Walter de la Mare's poetry; it counters two common critical misconceptions; escapism and lack of development. The overall pattern of imagery in the poetry reflects de la Mare's understanding of reality. It outlines a universe of four interpenetrating "worlds": this world, the other world, the child world and the adult world. This pattern is used as a frame of reference. Key poems are closely read so the complexity beneath apparent simplicity is pointed up. The poetry divides into three chronological stages, with two peaks of maturity. In the early peak, The Listeners (1912) and Peacock Pie, (1913) a distinctive, dense symbolic mode is perfected. After a transitional period of formal experimentation, a late peak is achieved with Bells and Grass (1941) and The Burning-Glass (1945), where symbolic imagery forms the core for a quiet, reflective, conversational mode. Throughout, the children's and adult poetry are considered as a unit.

From Chapter 1: In this chapter I hope to illustrate in general terms how de la Mare's interest in dream and the preternatural pervades his work. His views on reality and in what it truly consists will be considered and definitions provided of various terms used throughout this study. These will approximate as closely as possible the meanings they acquire through de la Mare's own use of them. Some detailed reference to his work, especially to his prose introduction to the anthology Behold, This Dreamer! and to his poem "Dreams", will provide support for the statements made. Finally, an attempt will be made to place de la Mare, briefly and in broad outline, within his literary context, again with particular reference to his interest in dream and the preternatural and where it corresponds to or deviates from what one could expect from a poet of this period.

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