Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop -

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat the express train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

 

The steam hissed, someone cleared his throat,

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform, what I saw

Was Adlestrop - only the name.

 

And willows, willow-herb and grass

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the the high cloudlets in the sky.

 

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

 

Edward Thomas 1878-1917

Done