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Edward Thomas

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If the war goes on I believe I shall find myself a sort of Englishman, though neither poet or soldier' - Letter to Walter de la Mare, 30th August 1914 Philip Edward Thomas (1878-1917) was born in Lambeth, London in 1878, of Welsh descent. He was educated at St Paul's College and then Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, where he studied history. A prolific writer of prose (including biographies of Richard Jefferies, Swinburne, and Keats), and a moderately successful journalist, his work concentrated on the image of England and the countryside. Thomas suffered from severe bouts of depression and recurrent psychological breakdowns, feeling creatively repressed by the endless reviews and ill-paid commissions he had to do to support himself and his family. Although happier with his writings on countryside that mixed observation, information, literary criticism, self-reflection and portraiture, Thomas still felt that his style was not original enough to merit recognition and struggled to find a form which suited him. It was only after a meeting with Robert Frost, the American poet, in 1913 that he devoted himself fully to the medium of poetry. From 1914 the...
Read the essay: Edward Thomas - biography by Katharine Lindsay
# Title Description Contributor
1 Edward Thomas: Edwardian War Poet

Dr Guy Cuthbertson takes an in-depth look at the poet Edward Thomas.

Guy Cuthbertson
# Essay Title Description Contributor
1 Edward Thomas - biography

If the war goes on I believe I shall find myself a sort of Englishman, though neither poet...

Katharine Lindsay
2 The Art of Mourning in First World War Poetry

The poetry written during the First World War was often created as an elegiac response to the...

Charlotte Barrett
# Title Description Author
1 Norse tales

Prose work.
Oxford : Clarendon Press

Edward Thomas
2 Two poems

The Lane and The Watchers
London : Ingpen & Grant

Edward Thomas
3 Chosen essays Edward Thomas
4 The country

Edward Thomas's short prose work
London : T. Batsford

Edward Thomas
# Resource Title Description Contributor
1 First World War timeline (interactive)

This interactive timeline, created as part of the First World War Poetry Digital Archive...

2 Edward Thomas's Birthday

Blog post and comments. Includes Thomas's poem, 'March the 3rd'.

Tim Kendall
3 Edward Thomas: 'In Memoriam [Easter 1915]'

Blog post and comments discussing the manuscript of Edward Thomas's 'In Memoriam [Easter 1915...

Tim Kendall