Edward Thomas as Poems Quotations

1159 Words5 Pages
Edward Thomas Quotations – The power of language * “Silence/Stained with all that hour’s songs.” Synaesthesia of sound being described in a visual term (MARCH) * Conversational – “Now I know that Spring” (MARCH)/“But these things also are Spring’s” (BUT THESE THINGS ALSO) * Language and words prove that we love the Earth, “As the earth which you prove/ That we love.” (WORDS) The problems with language * Names are confusing and pointless. They “half decorate, half perplex, the thing it is.” (OLD MAN) * To someone that knows the name of something (herb), it is meaningful, “In the name there’s nothing to one that knows not Lads-Love, or Old Man.” (OLD MAN) * Words have their own ability to choose who they want to have relationships with – Problematic idea, “Choose me/You English words?” (WORDS) * Unable to express his love for the addressee – his language is literal and has no figurative meaning or imagery, “Loves this my clay”/”Its dying day.” (NO ONE SO MUCH AS YOU) Memory * Jealousy of his daughter’s ability to remember her childhood from smelling plant/his incapability to, “I sniff the spray and think of nothing” / “She will remember, with that bitter scent.” (OLD MAN) * Loss of memory and dreaming capability, “And have forgotten since their beauty passed.” (TEARS) * Very aware that death is inevitable and he is overly eager for death rather than life. Remembers that he will die as this is what he longs most for, “Remembering again that I shall die.” (RAIN) * Struggles with his memory-frustrated that he can’t remember things, “And silences like memory’s sand.” (THE SUN USE TO SHINE) * He has no memory of previous months and seasons to make him feel better/they have no importance to him as he is drifting in age and will die, “And August gone, again gone by, not memorable.” (GONE, GONE AGAIN) Joy * Other
Open Document