Brian Bilston is a clever versifier but hardly a great poet. And neither is Edward Thomas a great poet. He is generally regarded as a minor poet of the Edwardian era, somewhat eclipsed by contemporaries such as Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen. Literary evaluation is of course subjective, but as an example  of great poetry I would propose ‘To Autumn’ by Keats: ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run, To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees; And fill Al fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel;; to set budding more, And still more later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For Summer has o’er-brimmed their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, They hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twisted flowers; And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cider-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. Where are the songs of Spring. Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, - While barred clouds bloom the soft dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.’

Entire Thread

Topic	Date Posted	Posted By
Another thought for the day from B.Bilston, friend of the Forum.	09/01/26 14:12:00	Gerry Boyce
In which nothing much happens at all	09/01/26 16:15:00	David Ainsworth
Re:In which nothing much happens at all	09/01/26 16:21:00	John Hawkes
Re:Re:In which nothing much happens at all	11/01/26 21:18:00	Philippa Bond
Reply	11/01/26 22:09:00	Sue Hammond
Re:Re:Re:In which nothing much happens at all	12/01/26 11:22:00	Gerry Boyce
Re:Re:Re:Re:In which nothing much happens at all	12/01/26 23:38:00	Steven Rose
Reply	13/01/26 00:54:00	Michael Ixer
Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:In which nothing much happens at all	13/01/26 01:04:00	David Ainsworth

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