Death & Dying
A Private
From Last Poems (1918)
This ploughman dead in battle slept out of doors
Many a frozen night, and merrily
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.
Codex Note
A ploughman who often slept out of doors at 'Mrs. Greenland's Hawthorn Bush' in Wiltshire is killed in France, and keeps secret where he sleeps now.
Cite this poem
MLA
Thomas, Edward. “A Private.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/thomas_e/36/.
Chicago
Thomas, Edward. “A Private.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/thomas_e/36/.
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