Welcome:

This blog was prompted by my son (in his twenties) wanting to get more seriously into poetry and asking me to recommend some poems. Where to begin? So this is primarily for him, but I hope other readers might enjoy it too.


Tuesday 17 January 2012

Edward Thomas

Adlestrop

Edward Thomas

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment