Roads To France Comments

This is a superb poem - highly effective in its memorialising of Edward Thomas as a man, a poet and a volunteer in the Great War who was tragically killed in action in 1917. I love the rhythms, the subtle references to Thomas's style and his verses, and the evocative way the poem emulates Thomas's work by juxtaposing images of nature with the horrors of war. I'm currently involved in a postgraduate project that is researching the formative influences that drove many thousands of young men to volunteer for Great War service during the months before conscription in 1916. The third and fourth stanzas in 'Roads to France' are particularly appropriate as to how youngsters were (often subliminally) manipulated during the mid-Edwardian period towards blind patriotism and the 'glorification' of war.

What incredible work I like your comments about the way the poem was written

Tony is my husband. I had not read this poem before.. it is totally new to me. I am quite haunted by it.