Edward Thomas and the Song of the Path

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Edward Thomas and the Song of the Path.

Edward Thomas was a great writer, a great walker, and he loved to sing.

In 1907, these attributes came together when he compiled The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air.

Two contemporary walkers writer Robert Macfarlane and actor and musician Johnny Flynn, met through their love of Thomas's work.

They set off with copies of The Pocket Book in their pockets, trying it out, walking in the footsteps of Thomas himself, near his home at Steep. They have been walking companions for years; they often sing as they go. Along the way they create a new song.

The Pocket Book of Poems and Songs for the Open Air includes poems by Yeats, de la Mare, Masefield, WH Davies and Housman.

Macfarlane and Flynn recite from what is, Thomas wrote, a volume for those 'who like a book that can always lighten some of their burdens or give wings to their delight, whether in the open air by day, or under the roof at evening.

Just as important are the songs - sailor songs, folk songs supplied by Cecil Sharp, Westmoreland songs.

They sing some of these, delving into an overlooked aspect of Edward Thomas's nature and work, his interest in folk traditions and the lives of the working people he met while walking

Producer: Julian May

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2022.

**** And Daljit reads from his Poetry Extra Book of the Month: That Broke into Shining Crystals by Richard Scott - his second collection.