Poetry Analysis of ‘Misletoe’ by Walter de la Mare

When Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) wrote the poem “Mistletoe,” he may not have realized the longevity of his words. “Mistletoe,” which first published in 1913, remains popular today. The 14-line poem is easily found online in several Christmas poetry collections, and I have been a fan of it for several years.

Structure of the 1913 Mistletoe Poem

The English poet de la Mare combines a clever rhyme scheme with flowing lines over two verses. He writes in the first-person perspective, and, as with many of his other poems, “Mistletoe” paints a deceptively simple scene and featured ghostly imagery (if this topic intrigues you, perhaps a read of his book Eight Tales would be one to check out). If you read the lines of this Christmas poem out loud, you may notice it has a musical quality about it.

What is Walter de la Mare’s  ‘Mistletoe’ About?

The first few lines offer a snapshot of the central character sitting alone in a room under the mistletoe. A reader may assume it is nighttime as there is “one last candle burning low, / All the sleepy dancers gone.” The narrator is painted as being tired and lonely.

With the background set, de la Mare then writes that “Some one came, and kissed me there.” He repeats the sentiment at the end of the poem: “Stooped in the still and shadowy air / Lips unseen – and kissed me there.” The kiss is from a stranger and the mood the poet creates is eerie.

One Leg at a Time: A Christmas Story

We recently had snow in Victoria, BC and it inspired this short story. I hope you all are having a nice December and, just think, it’s almost Christmas time!

One Leg at a Time

“Here are your pants and coat,” mom said, handing them both to me. I was eight now, and there would be none of this put on my clothes for me nonsense. It was a one leg at time routine, sure and steady, pulling up the waterproof red pants over my fleece leggings.

Now in the warm outfit, I slowly made my way to the front door as my bulky legs wouldn’t let me go at the quick pace I wanted. Mom had to help this time with putting on my boots as bending over would have thrown off my balance and sent me headfirst into the wooden shoe rack.

First, she put the plastic bags that once held loaves of bread over each socked foot, one at a time. No snow was going to dampen my feet if we could help it. Then I dove my wrapped feet into each boot held in place on the ground by my mom’s solid grip. No need to ask how I knew that grip was such a good one.

Why Write a Christmas Book? Author Sue Moorcroft Explains

Please join me in welcoming author Sue Moorcroft to the blog! She offers insights into writing a Christmas book and the origins of her latest novel The Christmas Promise in this holiday guest post. Take it away, Sue!

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Writing a Christmas book was a new experience for me. I’d written quite a few short stories for magazines set at or around Christmas but never anything longer. I’m not the world’s biggest Christmas fan.

I suppose there are three reasons I wrote The Christmas Promise. Here’s the chronology:

Waterstones had given me an opportunity to sign books in my local store. While I was handing out my bookmarks and chatting to prospective readers I was able to observe the table at the front of the store piled high with novels featuring Christmas. Those novels were just walking out of the store. A couple of people even came up to look at my books and said that if there had been a Christmas one they would have bought it because they make such good presents for friends or stocking fillers for relatives.

Short Story: Jane’s Christmas Shoes

Red heels and Jane. Photo: Helen Harrop, (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Flickr

Jane’s Christmas Shoes

Christmas time was coming soon. Jane was only seven years old, but she felt like a big girl. She stood in her mom’s red High heeled shoes that she found in the closet at home and walked around with them on her feet. She nearly tripped doing that last week, and her dad giggled along with her as he caught her in his arms.

“Your mom doesn’t even wear those Red shoes anymore,” he said to her, “so you can have them, Jane.”

How Jane loved those high heeled shoes. She wore them around the house, snuck them In her backpack to wear at school and even kept them under her blanket with her when she went to bed each night.

Then, last week, on the car ride home from school, Jane asked her mom why there was a lady walking on the sidewalk in Sandals.

“That’s silly, mom,” Jane said from the car’s backseat. “That woman doesn’t even know it’s winter and her feet will be cold. Why doesn’t she have proper warm shoes on like I do?”

Jane’s mom didn’t respond as she drove them home. Once back at their house, she took Jane to the couch and explained to her That the woman was homeless, which meant the woman didn’t have enough money to buy winter shoes.