Wilfred owen book
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Edward Thomas (poet)
British poet and novelist (1878-1917)
Phillip Edward Thomas | |
|---|---|
Thomas in 1905 | |
| Born | (1878-03-03)3 March 1878 Lambeth, Surrey, England |
| Died | 9 April 1917(1917-04-09) (aged 39) Arras, Pas-de-Calais, France |
| Pen name | Edward Thomas, Edward Eastaway |
| Occupation | |
| Genre | Nature poetry, war poetry |
| Subject | Nature, war |
| Spouse | Helen Noble (m. 1899) |
| Children | 3 |
Philip Edward Thomas (3 March 1878 – 9 April 1917) was a British writer of poetry and prose. He is sometimes considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. He only started writing poetry at the age of 36, but by that time he had already been a prolific critic, biographer, nature writer and travel writer for two decades. In 1915, he enlisted in the British Army to fight in the First World War and was killed in action during the Battle of Arras in 1917, soon after he arrived in France.
Life and career as a soldier
Background and early life
Edward Thomas was the son of
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The war diary of Edward Thomas
The Diary and the War
Thomas despised jingoism and imperialism, but following the outbreak of the First World War he felt a duty to defend his motherland against the threat, which he perceived, to its communities and their way of life. He joined the army as a volunteer in 1915, and spent a period with the Artists’ Rifles, before being commissioned second lieutenant with the Royal Garrison Artillery in November 1916. Thomas began this diary in January 1917, while he was with his regiment in Lydd, Kent. By the end of the month they had crossed to France:
"Arrived Havre 4 a.m. Light of stars and windows of tall pale houses and electric arcs on quay. March through bales of cotton in sun to camp. The snow first emptying its castor of finest white. Tents.
The diary contains pithy, sometimes humorous, observations on military life, together with arresting descriptions of the natural world following its course amidst the fighting. Thomas also evidently saw beauty in warfare:
"Enemy plane like pale moth beautiful among shrapnel bursts.""
He was killed
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Edward Thomas (1878 – 1917)
Edward Thomas was known during his lifetime as a critic, essayist and writer of books about the countryside. Born in London, his happiest days as a youth were spent either wandering over the commons of South London or with relatives in the countryside near Swindon. Wiltshire was to remain his favourite county.
As a schoolboy, Thomas was encouraged to write by James Ashcroft Noble, who had recognised the boy’s talent and was himself a distinguished man of letters and a neighbour. At Noble’s home, Thomas met and fell in love with Helen Noble, whom he subsequently married while still an undergraduate at Oxford University. After gaining a second-class degree in History, he decided to pursue a career as a writer, having been encouraged by the publication of some nature essays and especially his first book, The Woodland Life.
That decision, opposed by his father, led to years of poorly paid prose writing, both books and journalism. Life was a struggle for Helen, the three children and himself. Undoubtedly, this contributed to sporadi
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