Reading Between The Lines-edward Thomas's' The Dark Forest'abs 'The New House'

Edward Thomas is said to be an excellent writer, literary critic, and poet. His expertise in capturing complex emotions yet making them easily recognizable and relatable using poetic language still astounds readers worldwide. Mainly focusing on War poetry, his works still manage to bring in human life and man’s relationship with nature into the frame. He excels at unsettling the previously stable models of memory, language, perception and man’s individuality. This paper focuses upon two of his poems, ‘The New House’ and ‘The Dark Forest’.

Keywords:-

Man, Life, Nature, Perspective,

Reading between the lines: Edward Thomas’s ‘The New House’ and ‘The Dark Forest’.

Philip Edward Thomas (1878 -1917) was a phenomenal literary critic and an astounding writer in his time. He believed that poetry was the highest form of literary arts and hence after he gained recognition, he started with writing poetry after some bit of encouragement. He was described by a very renowned poet Ted Hughes as, “the father of us all”.

Most of his works bring light to the English countryside (even though he belongs to the Welsh origin). Commonly considered a war poet, seems to move away from the romantic thought into more experiential spheres of writing. C.H.Sisson in his writing, ‘English Poetry 1900-1950: An Assessment’ published 1917 writes about Thomas:-

‘He said what is in his poems, and there is no message beyond them.’

Thomas is said to speak with conviction of matters which may be touched and felt.He wrote about his observations and the life experiences he had lived through. He paid peculiar attention to how the rhythm and diction of his poems are as he believes that these reflect and mirror his pace.He opined that Man is a very little part of Nature and mankind was the part that he enjoyed least.He further added that civilisation has estranged mankind superficially from Nature.

‘The New House’ is one of the several poems he wrote in his lifetime.It was written in the March of 1915.In this poem, Thomas talked about the fragility of human life and the misapprehension that human beings live by believing in the idea of ownership.The house that Thomas talked about in the poem is said to be the house located at Wick green near Steep in Hampshire.He had shifted into this house by the hillside in 1909 and he had stayed there for quite a few years of his life , hence making it obviously an experiential poem.

It is imperial to remember that not once in the poem has he referred to it as ‘home’ rather he prefers using the word ‘house’.This brings particular emphasis on how he wants the reader to realise that ownership is a mere illusion.The title therefore is a strong message in itself. Not only that, the word ‘new’ too has a deeper view for readers to look at. Since, the idea of melancholy is conventionally portrayed by deserted old houses, the concept of the house being called ‘new’ is ironic and makes his poem stand out from the existing conventions of poetry in that time period. The second line of the poem, “I was alone” indicates how each human is a single entity only. The wind referred to in the stanza is said to be moaning which makes it a perfect example of both exemplary personification and audio imagery.Yet, he doesn’t specify if the moan is result of suffering or of pleasure. This seems to be an inspiration Robert Frost’s lines in , ‘The Road Not Taken’ in which the reason behind the ‘sigh’ is kept unspoken and left for the reader’s interpretation.The lines go :-

“I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

Interestingly though, it is a widespread speculation that Edward Thomas was inspired to write in the genre of poetry after being encouraged by Robert Frost in December of 1914.He referred to his poems as, “quintessence of the best part of” his “Prose books”.

Further in the poem he mentions, “the dread of what was foretold” therefore shedding light upon the fact that everything is uncertain in this world and anything could happen at any moment and yet man was cautioned that such times would come. Thomas with his imagination pushes his readers into the future to mourn the past that is yet to arrive. This as an idea is innovative and extremely thought provoking. The future is said to be full of storms, sad days and grief; something to have a fear of. This poem is probably a response to rapid changes that rural England was going through and the culture shock of urban modernity that was foreseen yet dreaded at the same time.