Poem of the Month – November 2022
Adlestrop
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 round him, mistier,
Farther and Farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
By Edward Thomas
This poem by British poet Edward Thomas (1878-1917) is a great favourite with the Kibworth & District u3a Poetry Group. It is quite short but conjures up powerful and memorable images with just a very few words.
Carol Townend
St Wilfrid’s
