As the leaves turn to gold and begin to fall and scatter in the gathering winds, I make for the now deserted beach nearby. There I am alone to walk in the pale sunlight with the screeching gulls and the sullen roar of the surf.
English nature poet Edward Thomas was struck down before his time in the killing fields of World War I. Mars claimed him as trophy in the bloody 1917 Battle of Arras. His muse was perforce the roar of cannon amidst the beastliness of war. But before he died in the stinking mud of Flanders he penned this most beautiful poem to an English Autumn that he was never to see again.
October The green elm with the one great bough of gold
Lets leaves into the grass slip, one by one,-
The short hill grass, the mushrooms small, milk white,
Harebell and scabious and tormentil,
That blackberry and gorse, in dew and sun,
Bow down to; and the wind travels too light
To shake the fallen birch leaves from the fern;
The gossamers wander at their own will,
At heavier steps than birds' the squirrels scold.
The rich scene has grown fresh again and new
As Spring and to the touch is not more cool
Than it is warm to the gaze; and now I might
As happy be as earth is beautiful,
Were I some other or with earth could turn
In alternation of violet and rose,
Harebell and snowdrop, at their season due,
And gorse that has no time not to be gay.
But if this be not happiness, - who knows?
Some day I shall think this a happy day,
And this mood by the name of melancholy
Shall no more blackened and obscured be.
There are many friends and loved ones who think of russet Autumn leaves and dew-hung gossamer webs in England - New Hampshire or Oregon - as they soldier before their Flag in service to our future freedom in the choking dust and harsh landscape of Afghanistan right now. We pray that they come safely home.
Edward Thomas's October is one of number appearing in The Daily Telegraph Book of Trevor McDonald - Favourite Poems (Michael O'Mara).Tel: 0870 155 7222, (UK) Order from Telegraph Books Direct, Units 5 & 6, Industrial Estate, Brecon, Powys, LD3 8LA, UK.
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