A textual and critical study of poems by Edward Thomas, selected from manuscript sources

Abstract

The Critical Introduction examines Thomas's 'way of seeing', approached through words, with their strengths and limitations as a means of communicating. Memory and the role of past experience in the present and future, sensuous perception with its limits as a means of understanding and content, humility and honesty in apprehending both folklore and the lore of child and creature, all are seen as integral to the poet's determination to understand himself and his relationships under the pressure of a war seen as part of a greater and continuing war of values. Notable, too, is the poet's treatment of his foreseen sacrifice and its relative insignificance. The Textual Introduction surveys B.M. Add. MS; . 44990 and, more fully, Bodleian Don. d. 28, establishing the different uses to which Thomas put them, the chronology of these drafts in relation to other data, and the relationship of printed editions to these sources. Bodleian Don. e.l0 - a commonplace book of 1901 - provides hitherto unmentioned evidence of Thomas's earlier interest in matters explored in the poems. The preparation of the early editions is covered, and a descriptive bibliography of early editions is included. The Text presents 32 poems from B.M. Add. Ms, . 44990, 1 from an early pamphlet, and 17 from Bodleian Don. d. 28, totalling 50' from some 130 consulted. (Drafts from Lockwood Memorial Library are examined in the Critical Introduction). The Notes cover alteration of these drafts in print, or as mentioned in letters to Farjeon. Critical commentary clarifies items of textual interest (e.g.Dand.28f.22 - "Roads") and amplifies the Critical Introduction. A .Bibliography, Index to the Poems, Appendices on Titles, Chronology of known imss. drafts, a Biographical Table 1914-17 and photographs of biographical interest are included, as are photocopies of textually significant readings from the Bodleian book and from early editions.(xiii, 290p, 16 plates)