The Annotated Collected Poems

by Edward Thomas, Edna Longley (Editor)

Edward Thomas wrote a lifetime's poetry in two years. Already a dedicated prose writer and influential critic, he became a poet only in December 1914, at the age of 36. In April 1917 he was killed at Arras. Often viewed as a 'war poet', he wrote nothing directly about the trenches; also seen as a 'nature poet', his symbolic reach and generic range expose the limits of that category too. A central figure in modern poetry, he is among the half-dozen poets who remade English poetry in the early 20th century. Edna Longley published an acclaimed edition of Edward Thomas' "Poems" and "Last Poems" in 1973. Her work advanced Thomas' reputation as a major modern poet. Now she has produced a revised version, which includes all his poems and draws on freshly available archive material. The extensive notes contain substantial quotations from Thomas' prose, letters and notebooks, as well as a new commentary on the poems. The prose hinterland behind Edward Thomas' poems helps us to understand their depth and complexity, together with their contexts in his troubled personal life, in wartime England, and in English poetry. Edna Longley also shows how Thomas' criticism feeds into his poetry, and how he prefigured critical approaches, such as 'ecocriticism', that are now applied to his poems. The text of this edition, which has a detailed textual apparatus, differs in small but significant ways from that of other extant collections of Thomas' poems. The Bloodaxe edition is larger (with more comprehensive notes) than Faber's "Collected Poems" by Edward Thomas as well as a pound cheaper. More importantly, for academic sales, the Bloodaxe text is more authoritative than Faber's (which uses R. George Thomas' 1978 text). Edna Longley has used manuscripts, proofs and newly available archive material to establish a text for Edward Thomas' complete poetry which will now be used by scholars and students in all future discussions of his work.

Genres: Poetry

336 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh writer of prose and poetry. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. Already an accomplished writer, Thomas turned to poetry only in 1914. He enlisted in the army in 1915, and was killed in action during the Battle of Arras in 1917, soon after he arrived in France.

His Works:

Poetry collections:

Six Poems, under pseudonym Edward Eastaway, Pear Tree Press, 1916.
Poems, Holt, 1917.
Last Poems, Selwyn & Blount, 1918.
Collected Poems, Selwyn & Blount, 1920.
Two Poems, Ingpen & Grant, 1927.
The Poems of Edward Thomas, R. George Thomas (ed), Oxford University Press, 1978
Poemoj (Esperanto translation), Kris Long (ed & pub), Burleigh Print, Bracknell, Berks, 1979.
Edward Thomas: A Mirror of England, Elaine Wilson (ed), Paul & Co., 1985.
The Poems of Edward Thomas, Peter Sacks (ed), Handsel Books, 2003.
The Annotated Collected Poems, Edna Longley (ed), Bloodaxe Books, 2008.

Fiction:

The Happy-Go-Lucky Morgans (novel), 1913

Essay collections:

Horae Solitariae, Dutton, 1902.
Oxford, A & C Black, 1903.
Beautiful Wales, Black, 1905.
The Heart of England, Dutton, 1906.
The South Country, Dutton, 1906 (reissued by Tuttle, 1993).
Rest and Unrest, Dutton, 1910.
Light and Twilight, Duckworth, 1911.
The Last Sheaf, Cape, 1928.

Reviews

[Andrew Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the essential book for anyone interested in the work of this great writer. As well as the complete poems, the book has extensive notes providing the contexts, the sources, and clues to what inspired, this very fine poet's work. Seamus Heaney described the book as "a crowning achievement by Thomas's best advocate, approachable by the beginner and invaluable to the specialist, with a critical apparatus which is at once a biography tracing the growth of the poet's mind and an engrossing anthology of his vivid, melancholy prose."
Edward Thomas wrote a lifetime's poetry in the two years before he was killed in Northern France in 1917. If all you know of him is Adlestrop - and most people, even those with no interest in English poetry at all, are familiar with those exquisite and haunting lines - then buy this book. You will find new meanings in the 'simpler' poems, like 'Sowing', and you will be guided through the extraordinary symbolism and references of his complex masterpiece 'Lob', to a deep and lasting appreciation of a glorious writer.

Sowing

It was a perfect day
For sowing; just
As sweet and dry was the ground
As tobacco-dust.

I tasted deep the hour
Between the far
Owl's chuckling first soft cry
And the first star.

A long-stretched hour it was;
Nothing undone
Remained; the early seeds
All safely sown.

And now, hark at the rain,
Windless and light,
Half a kiss, half a tear,
Saying good-night.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I wonder if we should keep 5 stars just for Tolstoy or such, but if any Minor Poet deserves all five, it's Thomas, because it just is so Thomas and it's not Yeats or Eliot, but it's one man looking at the world and writing it down.

[Liam Guilar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward Thomas only wrote 140 poems in a brief burst of late creativity between 1914-1917, though he had spent his life as a professional writer of prose churning out an estimated 1,000,000 words of essays, books and reviews between 1900 and 1914. He was a respected reviewer of poetry long before he began writing it: It was he who famously said Ezra Pound was in danger of meaning what he wrote rather then writing what he meant.

Amongst those 140 poems are some lyrics which you could set beside Yeats or Graves, and the exuberant, extravagant unforgettable 'Lob' which is one of the (few?) great poems about England and being English.

There are several editions of his collected poems available but this one is the essential one and earns its five stars for Edna Longley's critical apparatus. Seamus Heaney calls this the 'definitive new edition' 'approachable by the beginner and specialist alike' and it's difficult to see why anyone with an interest in Edward Thomas would not go straight for this book.

Longley's introduction is informative and thought provoking. She claims an importance for him which has been denied or ignored, but which needs to be considered and she argues that the usual labels; nature poet, war poet, Georgian, don't fit.

To call Longley's notes on the poems Annotations is to bend that word out of shape. They are informative mini essays, perfect examples of how scholarship can illuminate poems and let the poems breathe. The Notes run from page 143 to 321. The poems from 31-139 yet they aren't buried in any way. Her description is I think accurate: 'This 'Collected Poems' is another kInd of tribute. The Notes include a commentary on the poems. But their main purpose is to indicate, largely in Thomas' own words, the rich hinterland that sustained a uniquely intense poetic Journey.'

Poets need patrons and publishers, but also partisans, and in Longley Thomas has the kind of intelligent partisan who guarantees his work will be read, reread and reconsidered.

She claims:'He is among a half dozen poets who in the early twentieth century, remade English poetry." This edition makes it possible to consider that claim. Set beside Gurney and especially Rosenberg, I'm not sure he flies. Set beside Yeats and Graves, even young early Graves, I'm not convinced.

[Harry Allagree · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all, I'll say that I found it pleasant just reading the poems of Edward Thomas because they're so lyrical & fluid. It's easy to read them. That being said, I found Thomas rather difficult to understand. I'm sure it would have helped if I were 1) a poet, and 2) an English poet. Its clear that Thomas had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the environmental nature of the places where he lived, but unfamiliarity with that is a real handicap in understanding what he's saying, especially because his meanings aren't always literal. Thomas struggled with psychological problems virtually the majority of his young life. Sadly, he was killed in France in World War I at age 39.

[Michelle Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This annotated edition comes with useful, contextual notes by Edna Longley, a rich introduction, and a large collection of poems written by Thomas. This is the go-to read for anyone who wants to explore this enigmatic poet of the World War I era.

[Barawe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paní Edna je zachráncem všech neznalců poezie (mě, mě a zase mě) , kteří byli donuceni si poezii přečíst a pak se tvářit, že jí chápou.

[stephanie cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

for thomas and frost

the two poems could be
brokering to one another

at a yoke in the road, keeper
pins set, bows empty

of necks and the beam
between them eased

and uneased depending
(you decide each)