Killed in World War 1 at just 39 years of age, the poet Edward Thomas drew on his walks, cycle rides and other journeys through the countryside of England and Wales. Nick Denton has been retracing Edward Thomas's steps and has uncovered the links between the Vale of Pewsey and Edward Thomas's poetry.
“It was upon” was written in June 1916 just a few weeks before ET joined the artillery which would take him to fight in France.
The poem harks back twenty years to the summer of 1895 just after he had left school and was spending a carefree summer in Wiltshire staying with his grandmother and family in Swindon.
He was keen to become a writer. In his notebook at the time he jotted down observations of flora and fauna from his expeditions across Wiltshire. Some of these he included two years later in his first published book, The Woodland Life. He also noted the meaning of lattermath, a local dialect word for aftermath, the second mowing which created the fresh greenness he witnessed across the country in July.
Though he mentioned very few place names in the notebook, he does refer to Wide Waters, a place he visited at least twice from Swindon probably by train. He seems to have known it well, referring to a favourite stile which links the location to the poem. Wide Waters is probably Wilton Water, a fishing pond and reservoir for the Kennet & Avon Canal at its highest point, aka The Wide Waters (and not to be confused with Wide Water, part of the canal further west on the far side of Pewsey). The landscape around the pond, its accessibility from Swindon and how he may have come across it initially, all suggest it was the country around The Wide Waters in Wilton that Edward Thomas was remembering so clearly over 20 years later.
More on these clues and this idyllic period of Edward Thomas’s life appears on the Edward Thomas Poetry Places website.
There is also a suggested walk round The Wide Waters which includes the stile where he may have stood, looking along the path towards the “earth outspread,/ Like meadows of the future”.
We also have a walk that takes you on a similar route - Wilton Windmill, Roman Road & Crofton.
You may also be interested in our blog on Nick's research into "Lob" another of his poems set in the Vale of Pewsey.