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De la Mare mattered to Auden throughout his writing life. Initially he served as a model for the fledgling poet, but subsequently he became more important as a guide to taste: de la Mare’s anthology Come Hither was an important and lasting influence on Auden’s sense of the scope and variety of poetry. Later, when Auden himself became a distinguished anthologist, de la Mare’s example was key, shaping the conception of both The Poet’s Tongue and The Oxford Book of Light Verse; and in the selection he made of de la Mare’s verse, later in his life, the elder poet continues to help Auden articulate some of the central concerns of his literary thinking.