A Poet's Journey....

A Poet’s Journey 1914-17: Song Cycle

Saturday 18th October 7pm

St Cuthbert's Church

A Poet’s Journey

A Song Cycle based on 15 poems by the war-time poet Edward Thomas

Tickets £15 from https://www.ticketebo.co.uk/

Or on the door (subject to availability)

Edward Thomas (1878-1917) was known chiefly as a prose writer and only wrote poetry during the last few years of his life, encouraged by his close friend, the American poet Robert Frost. Frost's perhaps most famous poem The Road Not Taken was inspired by walks with Thomas and Thomas's indecisiveness about which route to take. Thomas is now widely regarded as one of the pre-eminent British poets of the twentieth century and poems such as ‘Adlestrop’ are among the best-loved in the language. His influence has been acknowledged by poets as diverse as W.H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin and Derek Walcott. He was killed at the Battle of Arras on Easter Day 1917. Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, nominated ‘Old Man’ by Edward Thomas as one of his favourite poems ‘because it so brilliantly proves, as do all his poems, that you can speak softly and yet let your voice carry a long way’.

If you are not familiar with Thomas’ poetry try this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0J1Ze5QXG8 - close your eyes and listen to Richard Burton reading what is probably Thomas’ best known poem ‘Adlestrop’. Sublime!

Set to music by composer John Middleton. The cycle captures the quiet intensity and emotional depth of Thomas’ work. Middleton describes the piece as a ‘kind of English Winterreise’ reflecting its haunting beauty and lyrical melancholy.

Music by John Middleton

Tenor: Lyndon Gardner

Piano: Anthony Wilson