Walter de la Mare: All That’s Past

Song Meaning

The poem immediately grounds us in the immense age of nature, contrasting the enduring woods and the ephemeral beauty of a rose that has witnessed "wild centuries." This sets a tone of deep time, where even the most delicate natural elements possess a history far beyond human comprehension. The imagery of "March winds wake" and "brier's boughs" suggests a cyclical renewal, yet this renewal is framed against a backdrop of ancient, almost geological, persistence. The poem then shifts to the brooks and rills, personifying their "history / Of come and gone" as profound wisdom, as "wise / As Solomon." This elevates the natural world not just as old, but as a repository of knowledge gleaned from countless cycles of existence. The "azure skies" and "snow sleeps cold" evoke a pristine, timeless source from which this ancient wisdom flows, implying a continuous, unbroken lineage of experience. Finally, the poem turns inward, declaring "Very old are we men." Our "dreams are tales / Told in dim Eden," suggesting a lost, primordial origin for human consciousness and aspiration. The fleeting nature of human life is starkly contrasted with the enduring natural world; we "wake and whisper awhile," but ultimately, "Silence and sleep" await us, lying like vast, unchanging fields. The poem crafts a poignant meditation on human transience against the backdrop of nature's eternal cycles, finding a profound, almost melancholic, wisdom in this contrast.