“Adlestrop”
Yes, I remember Adlestrop–
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| Photo by David Dukes |
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.
Back to Edward Thomas
Works Cited
1. Dukes, David. Adlestrop. Poets Grave “Edward Thomas” 6 Dec. 2007 <http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/thomas_e.htm>.
2. Edward Thomas “Adlestrop” Dir. Jim Clark. 2003. YouTube. 6 Dec. 2007 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bovVMS1SCdE>.
3. Thomas, Edward. “Edward Thomas.” The Norton Anthology of English Literature Eighth Edition. Ed. Greenblatt Stephen and M.H. Abrams. New York: W&W Norton & Company, 2006. 1956-1959.