A PRIVATE
By Edward Thomas
This ploughman dead in battle slept out of doors *moves from indefinite article
Many a frosty night, and merrily to demonstrative article
Answered staid drinkers, good bedmen, and all bores:
"At Mrs Greenland's Hawthorn Bush," said he,
"I slept." None knew which bush. Above the town,
Beyond "The Drover", a hundred spot the down
In Wiltshire. And where now at last he sleeps
More sound in France - that, too, he secret keeps. *Thomas’ inversion of syntax
Edward Thomas wrote “A Private” in January 1915, an early poem and in it he draws on
his memories as he was indisposed at home with an ankle injury. The recollection was
from May 1912 when he was on a long walk in Wiltshire starting at Chiseldon outside
Swindon. Wiltshire was a county he knew very well - having spent much time there in
his childhood and later it was the location for an important time in his courtship of
Helen whom he later married.
The title marks the military standing of this unnamed man whereas the opening words
describe his occupation whilst not in action. The shift from the use of the indefinite
article of the title to the demonstrative article used in the first line subtly marks the
anonymity of those who go to war. They become a nameless body of men. This man,
although humble, was someone who was noticed before his days on the battlefield and
although destitute, he had an identity.
The military rank of this man “A Private” is pivotal to the subject matter of this poem ,
namely the futility of warfare where men become faceless entities. This military man
By Edward Thomas
This ploughman dead in battle slept out of doors *moves from indefinite article
Many a frosty night, and merrily to demonstrative article
Answered staid drinkers, good bedmen, and all bores:
"At Mrs Greenland's Hawthorn Bush," said he,
"I slept." None knew which bush. Above the town,
Beyond "The Drover", a hundred spot the down
In Wiltshire. And where now at last he sleeps
More sound in France - that, too, he secret keeps. *Thomas’ inversion of syntax
Edward Thomas wrote “A Private” in January 1915, an early poem and in it he draws on
his memories as he was indisposed at home with an ankle injury. The recollection was
from May 1912 when he was on a long walk in Wiltshire starting at Chiseldon outside
Swindon. Wiltshire was a county he knew very well - having spent much time there in
his childhood and later it was the location for an important time in his courtship of
Helen whom he later married.
The title marks the military standing of this unnamed man whereas the opening words
describe his occupation whilst not in action. The shift from the use of the indefinite
article of the title to the demonstrative article used in the first line subtly marks the
anonymity of those who go to war. They become a nameless body of men. This man,
although humble, was someone who was noticed before his days on the battlefield and
although destitute, he had an identity.
The military rank of this man “A Private” is pivotal to the subject matter of this poem ,
namely the futility of warfare where men become faceless entities. This military man
