"A feeling of sadness and longing / That ... resembles sorrow only / As the mist resembles the rain"

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday:


The Thrush, Edward Thomas

When Winter's ahead,
What can you read in November
That you read in April
When Winter's dead?

I hear the thrush, and I see
Him alone at the end of the lane
Near the bare poplar's tip,
Singing continuously.

Is it more that you know
Than that, even as in April,
So in November,
Winter is gone that must go?

Or is all your lore
Not to call November November,
And April April,
And Winter Winter—no more?

But I know the months all,
And their sweet names, April,
May and June and October,
As you call and call

I must remember
What died into April
And consider what will be born
Of a fair November;

And April I love for what
It was born of, and November
For what it will die in,
What they are and what they are not,

While you love what is kind,
What you can sing in
And love and forget in
All that's ahead and behind.


Another early modernist: for a long time, Edward Thomas was remembered largely as a friend of Robert Frost (and inspiration for the speaker in "The Road Not Taken"). There's been more attention paid lately to his general influences on the Movement, and his death is yet another reason to damn the Great War for the voices it silenced.

---L.

Subject quote from "The Day is Done," Henry Longfellow.

Comments

[sovay]

I must remember
What died into April

I really like Edward Thomas.

[larryhammer]

I do too.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Edward Thomas!

[larryhammer]

We need more Edward Thomas around here.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

http://oracne.livejournal.com/tag/edward%20thomas

[larryhammer]

:-D