Annotated Collected Poems

Product Description

Edward Thomas wrote a lifetime's poetry in two years. Already a dedicated prose writer & influential critic he became a poet only in December 1914 at the age of 36. In April 1917 he was killed at Arras. Often viewed as a 'war poet' he wrote nothing directly about the trenches; also seen as a 'nature poet' his symbolic reach & generic range expose the limits of that category too. A central figure in modern poetry he is among the half-dozen poets who remade English poetry in the early 20th century. Edna Longley published an acclaimed edition of Edward Thomas' Poems" & " Last Poems" in 1973. Her work advanced Thomas' reputation as a major modern poet. Now she has produced a revised version which

Includes:: all his poems & draws on freshly available archive material. The extensive notes contain substantial"ations from Thomas' prose letters & notebooks as well as a new commentary on the poems. The prose hinterland behind Edward Thomas' poems helps us to understand their depth & complexity together with their contexts in his troubled personal life in wartime England & in English poetry. Edna Longley also shows how Thomas' criticism feeds into his poetry & how he prefigured critical approaches such as 'ecocriticism' that are now applied to his poems. The text of this edition which has a detailed textual apparatus differs in small but significant ways from that of other extant collections of Thomas' poems. The Bloodaxe edition is larger (with more comprehensive notes) than Faber's " Collected Poems" by Edward Thomas as well as a pound cheaper. More importantly for academic sales the Bloodaxe text is more authoritative than Faber's (which uses R. George Thomas' 1978 text). Edna Longley has used manuscripts proofs & newly available archive material to establish a text for Edward Thomas' complete poetry which will now be used by scholars & students in all future discussions of his work."