Edward Thomas

If the war goes on I believe I shall find myself a sort of Englishman, though neither poet or soldier' - Letter to Walter de la Mare, 30th August 1914 Philip Edward Thomas (1878-1917) was born in Lambeth, London in 1878, of Welsh descent. He was educated at St Paul's College and then Lincoln College at the University of Oxford, where he studied history. A prolific writer of prose (including biographies of Richard Jefferies, Swinburne, and Keats), and a moderately successful journalist, his work concentrated on the image of England and the countryside. Thomas suffered from severe bouts of depression and recurrent psychological breakdowns, feeling creatively repressed by the endless reviews and ill-paid commissions he had to do to support himself and his family. Although happier with his writings on countryside that mixed observation, information, literary criticism, self-reflection and portraiture, Thomas still felt that his style was not original enough to merit recognition and struggled to find a form which suited him. It was only after a meeting with Robert Frost, the American poet, in 1913 that he devoted himself fully to the medium of poetry. From 1914 the...