Friday, June 26, 2015

Poetry Friday: Adlestrop

I shared this poem once before back in 2008. I love how specific it is, and how it places us in one unrepeatable moment.


Adlestrop 

Edward Thomas

Yes, I remember Adlestrop –
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.

Here's today's roundup.

3 comments:

Tara said...

This is a poem to read aloud...again and again. Love it, too, Ruth!

Mary Lee said...

And then we think of how many of those remarkable/unremarkable moments fill our lives, just waiting to be written into poems...

Linda B said...

You're so right, Ruth, it takes us right there, doesn't it? We see that sign and hear the bird, the quiet. Lovely.