I'm re-reading UNDER STORM'S WING, Helen Thomas's writing about her husband, the poet Edward Thomas, with Letters and a commentary by their daughter Myfanwy Thomas. It is so very moving: he was killed, aged 39, in 1917 in the first world war. He was actually too old to have signed up, and no-one knows quite why he did it.

Over Christmas, then, I bought his Collected Works, a new edition edited by Edna Longley. Oh what a wonderful poet he was! The following is one of his best-known pieces (apart from ADDLESTROP). The plant 'Old Man or Lad's Love' grows on his grave in France - Myfanwy planted it there.

Old Man

Old Man, or Lads-Love, - in the name thereÂs nothing
To one that knows not Lads-Love, or Old Man,
The hoar green feathery herb, almost a tree,
Growing with rosemary and lavender.
Even to one that knows it well, the names
Half decorate, half perplex, the thing it is:
At least, what that is clings not to the names
In spite of time. And yet I like the names.

The herb itself I like not, but for certain
I love it, as someday the child will love it
Who plucks a feather from the door-side bush
Whenever she goes in or out of the house.
Often she waits there, snipping the tips and shrivelling
The shreds at last on to the path,
Thinking perhaps of nothing, till she sniffs
Her fingers and runs off. The bush is still
But half as tall as she, though it is not old;
So well she clips it. Not a word she says;
And I can only wonder how much hereafter
She will remember, with that bitter scent,
Of garden rows, and ancient damson trees
Topping a hedge, a bent path to a door
A low thick bush beside the door, and me
Forbidding her to pick.
As for myself,
Where first I met the bitter scent is lost.
I, too, often shrivel the grey shreds,
Sniff them and think and sniff again and try
Once more to think what it is I am remembering,
Always in vain. I cannot like the scent,
Yet I would rather give up others more sweet,
With no meaning, than this bitter one.
I have mislaid the key. I sniff the spray
And think of nothing; I see and I hear nothing;
Yet seem, too, to be listening, lying in wait
For what I should, yet never can, remember;
No garden appears, no path, no hoar-green bush
Of LadÂs-love, or Old Man, no child beside,
Neither father nor mother, nor any playmate;
Only an avenue, dark, nameless, without end

Edward Thomas

Dido, what a marvelous poem. Why have I not heard of Thomas? I'll have to look to see if he is in the anthology I have of WW I poets.

Astrokath, I really think "The Woman in the Fifth" is one of the most bizarre novels I've ever read. I've been utterly mesmerized and am coming up on the last chapter. I wonder what to expect....

Mary,

Thomas didn't write a great deal. But he is known as one of the great influences on 20th century poetry. He was a very great friend of Robert Frost, the wonderful American poet, who encouraged the very quiet and rather doubting Thomas. I love Frost, too....

'Something there is that doesn't love a wall'

What an amazing line!

and, of course,

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep....

Love it!

WHY, O why, did Thomas enlist at the age of 39, when he didn't have to, and go and get himself killed, in 1917....? He also had 3 children to keep....

Oh, I love poetry, but I dont' understand Poets.

Dido

Where did you all get your copy of The Woman in the Fifth? I first checked my library on-line, and they don't have it. Then I checked Amazon, and it says it will be available next June. I know Astrokath is in Australia, but woodnymph, you are in the U.S., right?

Carolyn, I actually bought my copy in Ireland in September.

Carolyn, I borrowed this paperback novel from a friend who has a daughter who just got back from Australia. I would be willing to bet his work is not in print in the US. I think my friend is discarding it, so if you are interested, let me know, and I can get it for you and mail it to you. In retrospect, on the whole, I liked it a lot, but then I am such a Maverick in my reading tastes....

Completed Some Danger Involved and am glad I discovered Will Thomas when he has all ready written several books in the series-very enjoyable read.

Now reading Milk of Human Kindness by Ferrars...the characters are all at such cross-purposes that it is a bit like an Ionesco play, but I'm enjoying it-not trying to figure anything out, just riding the tide.

No builders or plumbers or insurance adjustors due today, (I am actually getting quite fond of the hole in the dining room ceiling, and will miss it when it is gone...not!) my last near-deadline was this morning (met, in spite of floods, holidays and computer implosions...) so after I get things ready for the neighborhood frolic tonight, perhaps I will have a chance to actually sit down during the day and read!
(probably shouldn't have tempted fate like that-we do have big trees and a high wind advisory.)

Dido, that Frost poem is so timely. I am sitting here watching heavy snow fall in his corner of the world.

CC, I love Will Thomas's series. My favorite not-so-guilty pleasure. I hope another comes out in 2009.

I'm reading James Thurber's Thirteen Clocks, a beautifully told young adult story. I would love to hear it read out loud; the language is wonderful.

Finished Nevada Barr's latest, Winter Study last night. It is a fictional murder mystery set in the very real Isle Royal National Park on Lake Superior about the real 50 year-old and running predator/prey study of wolves and moose. Just the way to start the winter - a tale about life and death struggles in bitter cold, blinding snow, and low light. I continue to be impressed by Barr's increasingly well written series set in the National Parks. This is a revisit to Isle Royal for Barr, the first involved underwater wreck diving in A Superior Death

Drat and double drat. My library is closed today and tomorrow to celebrate the New Year. I was there just last night and had a lovely chat with a librarian friend. But I NEED to get my hands on the Will Thomas books that cece and Siobhan mentioned. Now I have to wait all...the...way...until...Friday.

In the meantime, I am reading:
The Tales of Beedle the Bard - J.K. Rowling
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Jane and Prudence - Barbara Pym
Hyacinth Bucket's Hectic Social Diary - TOTAL and COMPLETE brain potato chip to use cece's phrase. But what fun. Finished it this morning. The first three books I am reading simultaneously as the mood strikes. First one, then the other, then the third. All are good. I am only on page 26 of the Pym so cannot form a strong opinion yet, but I am expecting to enjoy it.

PAM

Read Some Danger Involved first-it explains everything.
I have the other 4 coming-but they are "in transit" from other branches, and due to the holidays, there are no deliveries until Monday-
aaannnnddd...whoever has out the next two Marsden mysteries I need should have returned them on Dec. 18th and still has them. Doesn't that just frost you!

I do have Shakespeare's Wife and The Price of Butcher's Meat to tide me over, I guess.

Almost two weeks late? The nerve. I can see an extra day or two if one needs to finish up the book. But two weeks? I hope they didn't get tossed into the trash with the crinkled wrapping paper.

On Will Thomas... Is not Some Danger Involved the most recent?

PAM

I hate how this site sometimes makes you change the subject line and sometimes does not! arrgghh!

now back to our story: no-Some Danger Involved is the first.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stop You're Killing Me-Will Thomas

Woodnymph, I would love to have the book and will gladly pay for it and reimburse your postage. Thanks!

I'm presently reading Iron Lake, the first of William Kent Krueger's series set in Minnesota. I have read a couple of them out of sequence and am now trying to get them from the library in order.

I really like Will Thomas, too, and recently read the last one.

Cece, who is Marsden? I looked at SYKM and found a very prolific Marsten who writes old-setting mysteries under both his own and some different names. Is that the one? I'm not familiar with him.

Yippee... my library has Will Thomas. All of them. I shall be a happy person on Friday when the library re-opens.

Thanks cece. I should have thought of SYKM. Can I blame it on post-Christmas cookie-eating syndrome?

PAM

I am giving murders a rest for a couple of days and am laughing through "The glamorous (double) life of Isabel Bookbinder" by Holly McQueen. It goes well with the Belgian chocolates and luxury biscuits/cookies that my loving family lavished on me, bless them!

Carolyn, I'll see if I can get that book for you, if my friend has not already taken the bag of books to the thrift store. Will keep you posted.

I really am enjoying the 3rd novel I've read by Carol Goodman: "The Night Villa", set in the area of Capri. A college professor investigates the ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii, post Vesuvius -- enough Roman history to satisfy me!