The Glory – Edward Thomas

The Glory – Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

The glory of the beauty of the morning, ——

The cuckoo crying over the untouched dew;

The blackbird that has found it, and the dove

That tempts me on to something sweeter than love;

White clouds ranged even and fair as new-mown hay;

The heat, the stir, the sublime vacancy

Of sky and meadow and forest and my own heart: ——

The glory invites me, yet it leaves me scorning

All I can ever do, all I can be,

Beside the lovely of motion, shape, and hue,

The happiness I fancy fit to dwell

In beauty’s presence. Shall I now this day

Begin to seek as far as heaven, as hell,

Wisdom or strength to match this beauty, start

And tread the pale dust pitted with small dark drops,

I hope to find whatever it is I seek,

Hearkening to short-lived happy-seeming things

That we know naught of, in the hazel copse?

Or must I be content with discontent

As larks and swallows are perhaps with wings?

And shall I ask at the day’s end once more

What beauty is, and what I can have meant

By happiness? And shall I let all go,

Glad, weary, or both? Or shall I perhaps know

That I was happy oft, and oft before,

Awhile forgetting how I am fast pent,

How dreary-swift, with naught to travel to.

Is Time? I cannot bite the day to the core.

Glossary:

Glory:              grandeur

cuckoo:            a bird with a call that sounds like its name

blackbird:        a European bird, the male black with a yellow beak and the female is brown with brown beak; a black North American bird is larger than the European black bird.

mow:               to cut gross using a machine or tool.

scorn:              a strong feeling that sb/sth is stupid or nor good enough

sublime:           a field covered in grass

scorn:              a strong feeling that sb/sth is stupid or not good enough

hearkening:     (hearken/harkens) to listen to sb/sth

hazel:               a small tree that produces small nuts those can be eaten

copse (ka:ps): (also coppice) a small area of trees or bushes growing together

lark:                 a small brown bird with a pleaser-song

swallow:           a small bird with long pointed wings and a tail with two points.

oft:                   often

pent:                an expensive

dreary:             that makes you feel sad, dull and not interested.

swift:                done quickly/immediately

naught/nought: (not successful) all our efforts have come to nought

Summary:

Edward Thomas is a famous early modern English poet, began to write poetry late in his short life. His poetry is plain – as Wordsworth’s. He is quite outstanding, conjuring up images of delicate yet sumptuous natural landscapes.

‘The Glory’ is mainly focus on the beauty of Nature that occupies a great deal of Thomas’s work, and it is one of the central concerns of the glory of the nature. For all the ability Thomas undoubtedly a poet, he does not seem to consider his insight to mean much – having been inspired by the Nature around him, its glory leaves him ‘scorning, all I can ever do, all I can be’; any attempt to put the beauty of nature into words can only ever be synthetic in some-way, and therefore inadequate. A feeling of inadequacy seems to pervade in this poem, as Thomas constantly questions himself and wonders whether he should change approach. Thomas appears to be striving for the perfection in the way he writes and describes as he perceives in nature itself. As someone who is wretchedly prone to perfectionism and self-questioning seen in his words. Above all, ‘The Glory’ appears to be a poem of paradoxes. The obvious one is being in the berating of himself for not matching the glory of nature. Thomas writes beautifully and truthfully about the Nature but induces uncertainty and self doubt. Another contradiction comes in the fabulous closing line of the poem: ‘I cannot bite the day to the core’.

Besides producing a great image, it has been suggested that it contains religious undertone referring specifically to the Garden of Eden. For someone who appears to want to know more, too much knowledge can be dangerous – indeed, ‘biting to the core’ may lead to the discovery that nature is not as glorious as it seems, with illusions being shattered, perhaps some trepidation is good if it means you can keep your ideals of ‘glory’ intact.

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