An introduction to

Born 1878 Died at the Battle of Arras 9th April 1917 Wrote all of his poetry during the First World War and half of them during his service in the army Wrote no poetry during his time at the Front Only three epitaphs are exclusively about the war

No poems written about his direct personal war experience None about anticipation or experience of battle Many of his poems draw on moods and scenes recollected from his pre-war travels in the south of England, many from around Petersfield

He was not trying to forget the War, nor is it forgotten There are sometimes oblique, sometimes obvious reference to the effects of war in a number of his poems Memories come to Thomas coloured by the presence of the war Poems are altered by the context in which they were written

It is not War but England at war that concerns him He has a preoccupation with the dark side of existence, either as a result of, or promoted by, his frequent bouts of depression This develops into a recurrent theme of a spent England, living on past glories often represented through the imagery of destruction of nature, eg. Trees

The blizzard felled the elm whose crest I sat in..... One of my mates is dead. The second day In France they killed him. It was back in March, The very night of the blizzard, too. Now if He had stayed here we should have moved the tree.'

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 never will do again.
This is a fine example of Thomass delicate use of metaphor which produces such a profound result when the context is understood. The juxtaposition of Easter and Spring Death and resurrection provides a powerful reminder that for those that died abroad, their will be no flower gathering again, no walks with their sweethearts.

War is seen as a random disaster and Death the culmination of a natural process War is the result of an historical process of decline of a nation Just as the Elm is dead, so too is the former glory of England, it lives a posthumous life So, much of Thomass poetry is concerned with what once was, and what now is, informed by a general awareness of the intransience of all things

Not a war poet in the same way that Owen or Sassoon are A poet whose poetry is informed by the political and social context in which it is written That context is the First World War