Edward Thomas and Froxfield / Hampshire Reading Detectives

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Edward Thomas and Froxfield Find!

Holidaying in Wales a couple of weeks ago, I was reminded of why I decided to take part in the Reading Detectives project. I'd watched Owen Sheers' programmes on poetry and place as part of the BBC's poetry series and thoroughly enjoyed them, particularly those on Wordsworth ("Composed Upon Westminster Bridge"), Matthew Arnold ("Dover Beach") and Lynette Roberts ("Poem From Llanybri"). I'm certainly not the first to mention that it seems much easier to tie poems to a place than novels, although Sheers' excellent Resistance is set in the Black Mountains of Wales and is beautifully evocative.

It also occured to me that we had not mentioned Edward Thomas, the poet killed in WW1 who was strongly associated with Hampshire and the village of Steep in particular -- although apparently Wiltshire remained his favourite county. I decided to take a look through his works and see what Hampshire-relevant material was on offer. "The Lane" seemed particularly apt: Not only does it mention a place -- Froxfield -- but it's set in September. It is perfectly in tune with the weather we're currently experiencing and the brambles I need to go out and pick.

The Lane

Some day, I think, there will be people enough
In Froxfield to pick all the blackberries
Out of the hedges of Green Lane, the straight
Broad lane where now September hides herself
In bracken and blackberry, harebell and dwarf gorse.
To-day, where yesterday a hundred sheep
Were nibbling, halcyon bells shake to the sway
Of waters that no vessel ever sailed ...
It is a kind of spring: the chaffinch tries
His song. For heat it is like summer too.
This might be winter's quiet. While the glint
Of hollies dark in the swollen hedges lasts -
One mile - and those bells ring, little I know
Or heed if time be still the same, until
The lane ends and once more all is the same.

21 September 2009 from Rachel the editor

1 Comment

Rob Illingworth | September 25, 2009 3:45 PM

Hi there,

Edward Thomas had strong Kent associations too:

http://www.readingdetectives.org/kent/2009/09/more-from-the-tramps.html

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