600. Adlestrop by Edward Thomas

Edward Thomas read by Classic Poetry Aloud:

www.classicpoetryaloud.com Twitter:@classicpoetry Facebook: www.facebook.com/poetryaloud

Giving voice to the poetry of the past.

---------------------------------------

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas ((1878 – 1917)

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 around him, mistier, Farther and farther, all the birds Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Reading © Classic Poetry Aloud 2008