Edward Thomas Quotes

• The simple lack of her is more to me than others' presence.

  Edward Thomas

  Love, Life, Relationship

  Edward Thomas (2012). “Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.150, Other Press, LLC

  61 Copy quote

• A merely great intellect can produce prose, but not poetry, not one line.

  Edward Thomas

  Lines, One Line, Produce

  1908 Letter to Gordon Bottomley, 26 Feb.

  9 Copy quote

• To-day I think Only with scents, - scents dead leaves yield, And bracken, and wild carrot's seed, And the square mustard field; Odours that rise When the spade wounds the root of tree, Rose, currant, raspberry, or goutweed, Rhubarb or celery; The smoke's smell, too, Flowing from where a bonfire burns The dead, the waste, the dangerous, And all to sweetness turns. It is enough To smell, to crumble the dark earth, While the robin sings over again Sad songs of Autumn mirth." - A poem called DIGGING.

  Edward Thomas

  Song, Autumn, Dark

  Edward Thomas (2011). “Selected Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.85, Faber & Faber

  11 Copy quote

• Making war or rebellion is messy, like eating soup off a knife.

  Edward Thomas

  War, Knives, Soup

  8 Copy quote

• How nice it would be to be dead if only we could know we were dead. That is what I hate, the not being able to turn round in the grave and to say It is over.

  Edward Thomas

  Hate, Nice, Would Be

  Edward Thomas (2008). “The Annotated Collected Poems”, Bloodaxe Books Limited

  11 Copy quote

• Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
  The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
  And saw from elm tops, delicate as flower of grass,
  What we below could not see, Winter pass.

  Edward Thomas

  Flower, Winter, Land

  Edward Thomas (1997). “Poems”, p.16, Imperial War Museum

  12 Copy quote

• As well as any bloom upon a flower I like the dust on the nettles, never lost Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

  Edward Thomas

  Flower, Dust, Losing

  'Tall Nettles' (1917)

  11 Copy quote

• If I should ever by chance grow richI'll buy Codham, Cockridden, and Childerditch,Roses, Pyrgo, and Lapwater,And let them all to my eldest daughter.

  Edward Thomas

  Daughter, Rose, Chance

  Edward Thomas, “If I Should Ever By Chance”

  52 Copy quote

• Verse is the natural speech of men, as singing is of birds'The Week's Survey, 18 June 1904

  Edward Thomas

  Men, June, Bird

  Edward Thomas (2011). “Selected Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.41, Faber & Faber

  8 Copy quote

• November’s days are thirty: November’s earth is dirty, Those thirty days, from first to last; And the prettiest things on ground are the paths.... Few care for the mixture of earth and water, Twig, leaf, flint, thorn, Straw, feather, all that men scorn, Pounded up and sodden by flood, Condemned as mud.

  Edward Thomas

  Nature, Dirty, Men

  Edward Thomas (2012). “Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.28, Other Press, LLC

  9 Copy quote

• Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin.

  Edward Thomas

  Country, Character, Fighting

  8 Copy quote

• I built myself a house of glass:It took me years to make it:And I was proud. But now, alas!Would God someone would break it.

  Edward Thomas

  Glasses, Years, House

  Edward Thomas (2011). “Selected Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.100, Faber & Faber

  4 Copy quote

• Yes; I remember Adlestrop- The name, because one afternoon Of heat the express-train drew up there Unwontedly. It was late June.

  Edward Thomas

  June, Names, Afternoon

  'Adlestrop' (1917)

  7 Copy quote

• I like to think how easily Nature will absorb London as she absorbed the mastodon, setting her spiders to spin the winding-sheet and her worms to fill in the grave, and her grass to cover it pitifully up, adding flowers - as an unknown hand added them to the grave of Nero.

  Edward Thomas

  Flower, Thinking, Hands

  Thomas, Edward (2014). “The South Country”, p.80, Read Books Ltd

  7 Copy quote

• The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood This Eastertide call into mind the men, Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should Have gathered them and will do never again.

  Edward Thomas

  Easter, Flower, Home

  Edward Thomas (2012). “Poems of Edward Thomas”, p.17, Other Press, LLC

  23 Copy quote

• I, too, often shrivel the grey shreds,Sniff them and think and sniff again and tryOnce more to think what it is I am remembering,Always in vain. I cannot like the scent,Yet I would rather give up others more sweet,With no meaning, than this bitter one.

  Edward Thomas

  Sweet, Giving Up, Thinking

  Edward Thomas (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Edward Thomas (Illustrated)”, p.21, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

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