The Poetry Of Edward Thomas

By Edward Thomas

The Poetry Of Edward Thomas. Poetry is a fascinating use of language. With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries. In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we look at the works of Edward Thomas. Philip Edward Thomas was born of Welsh stock on 3rd March 1878 in Lambeth, London. He was educated at Battersea Grammar school, St Pauls and then Lincoln College at Oxford. He married Helen whilst still an undergraduate and began his career as a book reviewer and literary critic. From 1905, Thomas lived with Helen and their family at Elses Farm near Sevenoaks, Kent. A close friend and supporter of the Welsh tramp poet WH Davies, he rented him a small cottage and helped his career at every opportunity; on one occasion, Thomas even had to arrange for the manufacture, by a local wheelwright, of a makeshift wooden leg for Davies. In 1913 he published a novel “The Happy Go Lucky Morgans”. By 1914 Thomas had become a poet initially publishing under the name Edward Eastaway. He thought that poetry was the highest form of literature. Thomas immortalised the railway station at Adlestrop in his poem after an unscheduled stop at the Cotswolds station on 24 June 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War. Thomas enlisted in the Artists Rifles in July 1915, despite his age. He was promoted corporal, and in November 1916 was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a second lieutenant. Edward Thomas was killed in action on Easter Monday April 9th 1917 during the Battle of Arras in France. He is buried in the Military Cemetery at Agny, Row C, Grave 43. Many samples of our audiobooks are at our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee Complete volumes on many poets, themes and our other products can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Sep 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780006895

Edward Thomas

Edward Thomas was born near Uxbridge in 1943 and grew up mainly in Hackney, east London in the 1950s. His teaching career took him to cental Africa and the Middle East. Early retirement from the profession enabled him to concentrate on writing. Along with authorship of half a dozen books, he has contributed regular columns to several journals.

Book preview

The Poetry Of Edward Thomas

Poetry is a fascinating use of language.  With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries.  In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage.  In this volume we look at the works of Edward Thomas.

Philip Edward Thomas was born of Welsh stock on 3rd March 1878 in Lambeth, London.  He was educated at Battersea Grammar school, St Pauls and then Lincoln College at Oxford.  He married Helen whilst still an undergraduate and began his career as a book reviewer and literary critic.

From 1905, Thomas lived with Helen and their family at Elses Farm near Sevenoaks, Kent.  A close friend and supporter of the Welsh tramp poet WH Davies, he rented him a small cottage and helped his career at every opportunity; on one occasion, Thomas even had to arrange for the manufacture, by a local wheelwright, of a makeshift wooden leg for Davies.

In 1913 he published a novel The Happy Go Lucky Morgans. 

By 1914 Thomas had become a poet initially publishing under the name Edward Eastaway.  He thought that poetry was the highest form of literature.

Thomas immortalised the railway station at Adlestrop in his poem after an unscheduled stop at the Cotswolds station on 24 June 1914, shortly before the outbreak of the First World War.

Thomas enlisted in the Artists Rifles in July 1915, despite his age.  He was promoted corporal, and in November 1916 was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery as a second lieutenant.

Edward Thomas was killed in action on Easter Monday April 9th 1917 during the Battle of Arras in France.  He is buried in the Military Cemetery at Agny, Row C, Grave 43.

Many samples of our audiobooks are at our youtube channel   http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee    Complete  volumes on many poets, themes and our other products can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores

Index Of Poems

Adlestrop

But These Things Also

The Trumpet

Two Pewits

A Private

Words

Ambition

This Is No Case Of Petty right Or Wrong

The Word

The Sign Post

The Combe

When I First Came Here

Snow

Thaw

After Rain

Unknown

The Path

After You Speak

Rain

No One So Much As You

And You Helen

Liberty

Like The Touch Of Rain

April

Old Man

The Ash Grove

Aspens

As The Clouds That Are So Light

The Bird’s Nests

Interval

Celandine

The Cuckoo

Cock Crow

October

Lovers

The Cherry Trees

The Child In The Orchard

The Dark Forest

Digging

The Child On The Cliffs

For These

Old Man

As The Teams-Head Brass

Early One Morning

The Gallows

First Known When Lost

Lights Out

The Glory

The Chalk Pit

Tall Nettles

The Green Roads

Over The Hills

The Gypsy

The Brook

The Hollow Wood

It Was Upon

If I Should Ever By Chance

The Huxter

The Owl

I Never Saw That Land Before

The Path

The Sign Post

The Bridge

The Lane

The New House

The Long Small Room

The Manor Farm

The Lofty Sky

Haymaking

If I Were To Own

The Other

Health

Gone, Gone Again

In Memoriam

How At Once

In Memoriam (Easter 1915)

Good Night

Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop - only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

But These Things Also

But these things also are Spring's

On banks by