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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 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.º

 

Edward Thomas

 

 

Notes:

º For those who don't know the pronunciation of these names,

   they are OX-ferd-sheer and GLOS-ter-sheer.  In both cases,

   the final syllable is sometimes pronounced "sher".

[artist]


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