A strong sense of wonder let WALTER DE LA MARE (1873-1956) write mysterious, ethereal poems and stories that can give chills to both young and old—he was a “poet of dusk.” Born in Kent, the “garden of England,” he grew up immersed in nature, but settled in London in 1890, where he worked in an office. A government pension in 1908 allowed him to write full-time, and in 1953 he was awarded the high honor of an Order of Merit. His 1923 anthology Come Hither: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages is a classic.