BS: A thought for Easter Monday-Edward Thomas poet

Subject: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: theleveller
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 08:59 AM

Just a thought for Easter. On Easter Monday, 9th April 1917, Edward Thomas, one of England's greatest and often underappreciated 20thC poets was killed on the first day of the Battle of Arras. Although already an accomplished prose writer, he started writing poetry only in 1915, but produced over 140 poems in the two years before his death. To my mind he is on a par with Hardy (who he greatly admired) and with his contemporaries such as A E Housman, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brook, and with his friends, Walter de la Mare, Robert Frost and W H Davies. His poem 'Haymaking' is one of the most quintessentially English poems I can think of – a word painting that is the very essence of what, a few years later, H V Morton wrote about in his superb English travelogue, 'In Search of England'.

Haymaking - Edward Thomas


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Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 10:48 AM

What a lovely poem, theleveller! So evocative of the English countryside. Have printed it out and will have it by my bed to read again tonight. Thank you so much!

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 12:39 PM

That is beautifully written. Thanks so much for posting it. My dad would have liked it very much.

I have a friend who has been writing the most extraordinary poetry. I keep telling him he is going to be England's next Kipling, though his stuff compares well to the others you mention above, too. I admonish him to get it out as it would be too sad if it were all discovered after his passing ala Emily Dickinson! What he has shared with me are treasures in my heart. I love good poetry!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 12:59 PM

Edward Thomas: 'In Memoriam [Easter 1915]'

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood
This Eastertide call into mind the men,
Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should
Have gathered them and will do never again.

One of the greatest poems in the language.

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: theleveller
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 04:44 AM

Glad you like it, folks. MtheGM - yes, a very fine poem, but almost too poignant, possibly even more so than Housman.

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: theleveller
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 06:04 AM

Refresh

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: KHNic
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 04:06 PM

A wonderful poem. Evocative of an English ideal.

9th April also the birthday of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Great British Engineer, although technically French.

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Apr 12 - 04:19 PM

another thought

'Twas down by the glen one Easter morn,
To a city fair rode I,
When Ireland's lines of marching men
In squadrons passed me by,
No pipe did hum and no battle drum
Did sound its dread tattoo.
But the Angelus bell o'er the Liffey's swell
Ran out in the foggy dew.

Right proudly high over Dublin town
They hung out a flag of war;
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky
Than at Suvla or Sudel Bar.
and from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through,
While Britannia's sons with their long ranging guns
Sailed in from the foggy dew.

'Twas England bade our wild geese go
That small nations might be free;
Their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves
On the fringe of the grey North Sea.
But had they died by Pearse's side
Or fought with Valera true,
Their graves we'd keep where the Fenians sleep,
'Neath the hills of the foggy dew.

The braves fell, and the solemn bell
Rang mournfully and clear
For those who died that Eastertide
In the springing of the year.
And the world did gaze in deep amaze
At those fearless men and true
Who bore the fight that freedom's light
Might shine through the foggy

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: keberoxu
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 01:50 PM

... shine through the foggy dew, I take it ...

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 03:07 PM

New link https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53746/haymaking

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: JHW
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 04:15 PM

Thanks for the original post and poem link. Just today (E.Sunday,Apr12) R4 reminded me of Edward Thomas and Easter Monday.

Subject: BS: edward thomas poet
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Apr 20 - 04:26 PM

A Programme about Thomas on radio 4 extra
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000h898

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Apr 20 - 09:38 AM

Not to mention the Easter Rising.

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Apr 20 - 02:07 PM

Not my expertise, so correct me if I'm wrong.

While the Orthodox Church has their Pascha on a different date
than the Western church's Easter,
I also recall some different terminology
(from Mudcat member mousethief, I believe).

Isn't the Monday following Orthodox Pascha
known as 'Bright Monday'? Lovely term.

Subject: RE: BS: edward thomas poet
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Apr 20 - 02:10 PM

Respect!

I just went over here,
and look how many Edward Thomas poems
have been set to music by classical composers.
A whole big bunch of them! I'm impressed.

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday-Edward Thomas poet
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Apr 20 - 02:09 AM

Thomas also edited "The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air" (1907), an attractive collection including literary and folk material with some tunes written out. Shouldn't be too hard to find, I have a reprint from the 1920s.

Subject: RE: BS: A thought for Easter Monday-Edward Thomas poet
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Apr 20 - 04:29 PM

Above the line, possibly, owing to the settings to music?   

Here are the poems that I know of that became songs:

Adlestrop
Bright Clouds
Digging, I
Head and bottle
House and man
In memoriam
Lights out
Like the touch of rain
Out in the dark
Rain
Sowing
Tall nettles
The bridge
The cherry trees
The dark forest
The gallows
The huxter
The new house
The penny whistle
The trumpet
When he should laugh
Will you come?
Words

(copied from www.lieder.net)