Лучшие книги Эдварда Томаса

Номер тематический — «Англия, которая гуляет сама по себе», и открывается он романом Ричарда Хьюза (1900—1976) «Крепкий ветер на Ямайке» в переводе Александра Глазырина. Стихи Филипа Артура Ларкина (1922—1985) в переводе и со вступлением Михаила Липкина. «Ларкин, — сказано во вступлении, — даже если и не дарует утешения, то, по крайней мере, разделяет с читателем столь свойственное современному человеку западной культуры ощущение одиночества и ущемленности. А это уже немало». В рубрике «Из классики ХХ века» — два рассказа Редьярда Киплинга (1865—1936) в переводе Александра Глазырина. Рассказ «Водоворот» с многозначительным…

Since the publication of Walter de la Mare's first edition of his poems in 1920, Edward Thomas has gradually come to be seen as one of the great English poets of the 20th century. Though sometimes classified with Owen, Rosenberg, and Sassoon as a "war poet," he was rather a poet who died tragically in the war. His main subjects were the English countryside and people, solitude, and the anguish of solipsism. As de la Mare wrote eighty years ago, "When Edward Thomas was killed in Flanders, a mirror of England was shattered of so pure and true a crystal that a clearer and tenderer reflection of it can be found no other where than in these poems." This complete collection of Thomas's poems returns us to the ongoing relevance of this essential poet. Revealing a poet whose work resonates in our times, this volume will be returned to again and again.
The sorrow of true love is a great sorrow And true love parting blackens a bright morrow:
Yet almost they equal joys, since their despair Is but hope blinded by its tears, and clear Above the storm the heavens wait to be seen.
But greater sorrow from less love has been That can mistake lack of despair for hope And knows not tempest and the perfect scope Of summer, but a frozen drizzle perpetual Of drops that from remorse and pity fall And cannot ever shine in the sun or thaw,
Removed eternally from the sun's law.
- Last Poem [The sorrow of true love]

'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?'

The First World War produced an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent, from poets whose words commemorate the conflict as enduringly as monuments in stone. Their poems have come to express the feelings of a nation about the horrors and aftermath of war. This new anthology provides a definitive record of the achievements of the Great War poets. As well as offering generous selections from the celebrated soldier-poets, including Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, and Ivor Gurney, it also incorporates less well-known writing by civilian and women poets. Music hall and trench songs provide a further lyrical perspective on the War.

The work of each poet is prefaced with a biographical account that sets the poems in their historical context. In addition, Tim Kendall's introduction charts the history of the war poets' reception and challenges prevailing myths about their progress from idealism to bitterness.

The subject of this book was a man who was continually writing about himself, whether openly or in disguise. He was by nature inclined to thinking about himself and when he came to write he naturally wrote about himself; and his inclination was fortmed by the obvious impression made upon other men by himself and by his writings. He has been o.ead thirty years j much has been written about him by those who knew him or knew those that did: yet the impression still made by him, and it is one of the most powerful, is due mainly to his own books. N or has anything lately come to light to provide another writer on Borrow with an excuse. the impertinence of the task can be tempered only by its apparent hopelessness and by that necessity which Voltaire did not see. r shall attempt only a re-arrangement of the myriad details accessible to all in the writings of Borrow and about Borrow.