Poem ~ Edward Thomas: The Road Taken - Tuesday, 10 April 1917 - Wednesday, 11 April 1917

Source: File: Company of Hut 35: Edward Thomas second row, second from left. See an original image at: <http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03319/thomas7_3319732b.jpg> [Accessed 10 April 2017]

When might a poet emerge from night?

As some day without date

Or significance - as a wind might push

Unpredictable weather;

As a sun that warms, or settling of frost.

Perhaps by challenging companionship

On long walks over long grass,

Reaching divergence of yellow wooded

Paths, where friends debate

In lost sunshine - a final step was taken.

Successful novelist, essayist and critic

Edward Thomas received

A friend’s poem by post - Robert Frost's

'The Road Not Taken,'

Pushed his friend along a new direction.

English Thomas had reacted to American

Friend Frost, to feel insulted.

This prompted the London born man into

Armed services; taking him

On a decisive path to join Artists Rifles.

July 1915's enlistment had broken

Any lingering indecision -

Despite marriage and middle aged,

Edward Thomas felt

Personal need to undertake his duty.

November 1916 - over many months

Of training had gained

Thomas' promotion, from Corporal's

Two bar chevron to take

Commission as Second Lieutenant.

By shrugged off indecisive creativity

Edward Thomas found

His path to poetry - then indirectly

Spoke of war, along

With a favored subject of countryside.

Evoking own deeper emotions, mostly

Written prior to stepping

Onto foreign soil, Thomas would reach

The borders of sleep,

And become lost within a deep forest.

A man's self struggle with love of both

Wife, children and pride

For country - Thomas continued to write

When finally he arrived

In France for 1917, then ready to fight.

As commissioned Second Lieutenant

With the Royal Garrison

Artillery, Thomas headed towards Arras.

This enigmatic man, despite

Success, carried depressive tendencies.

Historic legacy of phantoms had haunted

Thomas - old depression

Had led him to unsuccessful suicide trials -

But perhaps war gave

Him reason - he crumbled pinched earth.

By way of explanation of why he wanted

To fight, Thomas sought

An urgent transfer to the frontline - keen

Impatient to be shot at.

Suicidal or patriotic Thomas gained wish.

A new day dawned on Easter Monday,

9th April 1917 - destruction

Commenced the second battle of Arras.

Vimy Ridge under a heavy

Canadian attack, saw a dawn of shellfire.

A distance of some seven miles existed

Between Vimy and Arras -

An area where writer Second Lieutenant

Edward Thomas took duty,

Having spent relatively little time in France.

Then with 143 poems to his name, Thomas

Took a break - lack of caution

Perhaps, took him outside. Morning shells

Still fired, as he decided

To loiter, close beside a parapet for a smoke.

Such a place he had written about - where

Children ran along, as a path

That gave them a view below their feet.

If then there they would see

Their creator lingering to light-up his pipe.

As tobacco ignited he drew in the flame

With final breath, as some

Shell impacted close by - sending him

To the borders of sleep -

A concussive wave sped over his body.

The impact of the blast wave rocked

Vital organs; Edward

Thomas fell dead. Later Helen Thomas

Would read how there

Was no mark on her husband's body.

Such an official version had spared his 

Wife a little grief - though

Commanding officer Franklin Lushington,

Years later revealed how

Thomas had been shot through the chest.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Edward Thomas Poet. Wikipedia. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thomas_(poet)> [Accessed 10 April 2017]

Source: File: Edward Thomas (1878-1917), War Poets Association. Available at: <http://www.warpoets.org/poets/edward-thomas-1878-1917/> [Accessed 10 April 2017]

Source: File: Edward Thomas: an acute depressive who loved the English countryside. The Daily Telgrapgh. Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/11628589/Edward-Thomas-an-acute-depressive-who-loved-the-English-countryside.html/> [Accessed 10 April 2017]

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 10 April 2017). 

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Poem ~ The Waking of Edward Thomas - Sunday, 13 December 1914

Source: File: Edward Thomas at Steep in 1914.jpg, Edward Thomas: Now All Roads Lead to France. [online] (updated April 25, 2013 by Gerry ) Available at: <https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/edward-thomas-now-all-roads-lead-to-france/> Accessed: 13 December 2014].

By shortest days of December -

In a mournful time of a year -

With frost cracking underfoot,

Comes recollection of springtime,

When soft, young sunshine,

Shone upon a time of peace.

Amid waking days of 1914,

Edward Thomas in footsteps,

Followed celandine tracks,

About fertile Gloucestershire -

A man of 35 - yet to be a poet.

Deeper into a woody glade,

Came crossroads to Dymock.

Where roads diverged -

One rocky, one not -

With faded Daffodil heads,

Long gone to crisp browns.

Which path then is best to take?

Temptation chooses un-trodden

Ways - where eyes have little seen -

So fate might lead to newer places,

Where budding poets might seek.

Amid privacy of woods,

In solitude Edward dwelled -

On years of achievements,

And those same years of failure;

A father of two, with loyal wife.

He surely had gained,

What all English men desire.

Yet with such sober success,

Brings financial pressures.

He reflected over money’s needs,

Below the bright bows of trees -

Leaves spun inside a jostling mind.

Lifted in his sublime thoughts,

By descent of Romanticism -

The lightness weighs heavy

On shoulders - where suicide

Might hang amid the trees.

 

Yet the days of Edward Thomas

Were still to ripen - after years

Of wanting and wishing - of visions

Formed in endless woodland walks,

He paused upon an English stile,

Looking far out, to far off fields.

In Long days, England paused,

And with deep breaths braced -

As Edward paused and listened -

Peaceful as the peaceful years,

When all wars were far abroad,

He jumped into the long grass.

From the other side of a pond,

By some act of providence

Came a poet - An American.

Robert Frost and family desired

For life ‘under thatch,’ so arrived

In the county of Gloucester.

By Forest of Dean, down Ledbury

Way, in desire for rural living they

Came upon the village of Dymock -

Already a sanctuary of poets.

And by August, also the home

Of an aspiring Edward Thomas.

Edward Thomas, Robert Frost -

In those weeks bonded as friends -

Almost inseparable - in union,

Poets and men, from continents

Apart, but close in love of words.

By water’s edge and under woody

Glades, they crossed miles from

Leddington to Ryton, Malverns

And Mayhil - they sat, they talked

And smoked under shady trees.

By slow summers pace, came

Self-awareness for Edward -

This American man shared

His ideals and ideas of diction,

Language and belief of poetry -

As idealized form of literature.

‘You have the ideas - you have

Knowledge of your language

All this time you’ve read and

Written of others - reviewed

Their work – you should take

Your experiences and make

Time, just for you to write,’

Such words Frost repeated.

With August arriving at an end,

Its closing finality, like a gate

Shutting on a garden of peace.

Unknown time forgotten - walled

Behind a fence - now a place

Never again to be revisted.

Beyond the circle of Dymock

War had stirred - at 36

Edward Thomas, married

With children, maybe thought

War, was a young man’s game.

Awoken from his modesty,

Edward Thomas moved on,

And began to write - as 1914

Slowly crept into winter -

Under dulling December

Skies, Edward took up the pen.

Between the third day

And seventh of December,

Edward began as writer

Of poetry, with the idea

To issue his poems, under

A name of Edward Eastway.

Source: File: Edward Thomas (poet) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thomas_(poet)> Accessed: 13 December 2014].

Source: File: Friends of the Dymock Poets, Edward Thomas (1878-1917). [online] Available at: <http://www.dymockpoets.org.uk/Websites.htm> Accessed: 13 December 2014].

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