Death & Dying

A Private

by Edward Thomas 1878–1917

From Last Poems (1918)

Death & DyingHistory & Politics

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.

✦ ✦ ✦

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.

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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