Selected Poems and Prose

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The selected poems and prose writings of Edward Thomas, with a Foreword from Robert Macfarlane, author of The Old Ways

'I have come to the borders of sleep,
The unfathomable deep
Forest where all must lose
Their way, however straight,
Or winding, soon or late;
They cannot choose.'

Fired by his abiding love of the English landscape, the poetry of Edward Thomas is some of the most astonishing of the twentieth century. A journalist, essayist and critic for many years, he was encouraged to write verse by his friend Robert Frost. He produced a late outburst of poetry of extraordinary beauty and mystery about the subjects closest to his heart: rural England and its inhabitants, landscape, atmosphere, transience, endurance and death. By 1917, when he was killed on the Western Front, he had earned his place as one of England's most valued poets. This selection brings together his finest verse with his most vivid prose writings on the countryside.

'The father of us all' Ted Hughes

Edited by David Wright
With a Foreword by Robert Macfarlane, taken from The Old Ways

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. xi)
• Acknowledgements and Note on the Selection (p. xxxi)
• Selected Prose and Poems
• Prose
• From 'A Diary in English Fields and Woods' (p. 5)
• To Gordon Bottomley. From Bearsted. March 17th, 1904 (p. 17)
• From Beautiful Wales
• A Farmhouse under a Mountain (p. 19)
• Llewelyn, the Bard (p. 24)
• April (p. 25)
• To Gordon Bottomley. From The Weald. July 26th, 1905 (p. 26)
• From The Heart of England
• Leaving Town (p. 27)
• Apple Blossom (p. 32)
• To Gordon Bottomley. From Minsmere. February 26th, 1908 (p. 32)
• From The South Country
• æI Travel Armed Only with MyselfÆ (p. 33)
• Beeches (p. 36)
• A Return to Nature (p. 36)
• A Railway Carriage (p. 42)
• The End of Summer (p. 46)
• History and the Parish (p. 50)
• An Umbrella Man (p. 52)
• From æAt a Cottage Door' (p. 58)
• Hawthornden (p. 63)
• The Attempt (p. 68)
• Insomnia (p. 74)
• Chalk Pits (p. 77)
• Saved Time (p. 83)
• People Who Live in Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones (p. 89)
• Rain (p. 90)
• æAll These Things Are Mine' (p. 92)
• The First Cuckoo (p. 93)
• From In Pursuit of Spring
• The Chiffchaff (p. 97)
• The Other Man (p. 97)
• From Walter Pater
• Pater and Style (p. 99)
• How I Began (p. 106)
• From The Childhood of Edward Thomas
• Infancy (p. 109)
• Holidays (p. 114)
• A Third-Class Carriage (p. 118)
• Tipperary (p. 121)
• It's a Long, Long Way (p. 133)
• This England (p. 142)
• Poems
• Up in the Wind (p. 149)
• March (p. 152)
• Old Man (p. 153)
• The Sign-Post (p. 154)
• The Other (p. 155)
• After Rain (p. 159)
• Birds' Nests (p. 159)
• The Manor Farm (p. 160)
• The Combe (p. 161)
• The New Year (p. 161)
• The Source (p. 162)
• The Penny Whistle (p. 162)
• A Private (p. 163)
• Snow (p. 163)
• Adlestrop (p. 164)
• Tears (p. 164)
• Over the Hills (p. 165)
• The Cuckoo (p. 166)
• Swedes (p. 166)
• The Unknown Bird (p. 167)
• The Mill-Pond (p. 168)
• [Man and Dog] (p. 169)
• Beauty (p. 170)
• [The Gypsy] (p. 171)
• [Ambition] (p. 172)
• House and Man (p. 172)
• Parting (p. 173)
• First Known when Lost (p. 174)
• May 23 (p. 175)
• The Barn (p. 176)
• Home (p. 177)
• The Owl (p. 178)
• The Child on the Cliff (p. 178)
• Good-Night (p. 179)
• But These Things Also (p. 180)
• The New House (p. 180)
• Sowing (p. 181)
• March the 3rd (p. 182)
• The Path (p. 182)
• [The Wasp Trap] (p. 183)
• Wind and Mist (p. 184)
• A Gentleman (p. 186)
• Lob (p. 186)
• Digging (p. 191)
• Lovers (p. 191)
• In Memoriam [Easter, 1915] (p. 192)
• Head and Bottle (p. 192)
• Home (p. 192)
• [Health] (p. 193)
• [She Dotes] (p. 195)
• Song (p. 195)
• Melancholy (p. 196)
• To-Night (p. 196)
• The Glory (p. 197)
• July (p. 197)
• The Chalk Pit (p. 198)
• Fifty Faggots (p. 200)
• Sedge-Warblers (p. 200)
• [I Built Myself a House of Glass] (p. 201)
• Words (p. 201)
• The Word (p. 203)
• Under the Wood (p. 204)
• Haymaking (p. 205)
• The Brook (p. 206)
• Aspens (p. 207)
• The Mill-Water (p. 208)
• For These [Prayer] (p. 209)
• Digging (p. 210)
• Two Houses (p. 210)
• Cock-Crow (p. 211)
• October (p. 211)
• There's Nothing Like the Sun (p. 212)
• The Thrush (p. 213)
• Liberty (p. 214)
• [This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong] (p. 215)
• Rain (p. 215)
• The Clouds that are so Light (p. 216)
• Roads (p. 217)
• The Ash Grove (p. 219)
• February Afternoon [Sonnet 2] (p. 220)
• P.H.T. (p. 220)
• [These Things that Poets Said] (p. 221)
• No One So Much As You (p. 221)
• The Unknown (p. 223)
• Celandine (p. 224)
• 'Home' (p. 225)
• Thaw (p. 226)
• Household Poems [1 Bronwen] (p. 226)
• [2 Morfyn] (p. 227)
• [3 Myfanwy] (p. 228)
• [4 Helen] (p. 228)
• [The Wind's Song] [Sonnet 3] (p. 229)
• Go Now (p. 229)
• Tall Nettles (p. 230)
• [The Watchers] (p. 230)
• [I Never Saw That Land Before] (p. 231)
• It Rains (p. 232)
• The Sun Used to Shine (p. 232)
• [Bugle Call] (p. 233)
• As the Team's Head-Brass (p. 234)
• After You Speak (p. 235)
• [Song 3] (p. 236)
• [Sonnet 5] (p. 236)
• Bob's Lane (p. 237)
• [There Was a Time] (p. 238)
• The Green Roads (p. 238)
• When First (p. 239)
• The Gallows (p. 240)
• [The Dark Forest] (p. 241)
• When He Should Laugh (p. 241)
• The Swifts (p. 242)
• Blenheim Oranges (p. 242)
• [That Girl's Clear Eyes] [Sonnet 6] (p. 243)
• [What Will They Do?] (p. 244)
• The Trumpet (p. 244)
• Lights Out (p. 245)
• The Long Small Room (p. 246)
• The Sheiling (p. 247)
• The Lane (p. 247)
• [Out in the Dark] (p. 248)
• From Diary, 1 January-8 April 1917 (p. 249)
• Notes (p. 259)