SOURCE: Day Lewis, Cecil. “The Poetry of Edward Thomas.” In Essays by Divers Hands, edited by Angela Thirkell, pp. 75-92. London, New York, and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1956.

In the following essay, first delivered as a lecture in July 1954, Day Lewis, once the Poet Laureate of Great Britain from 1968 to 1972, states that as young man, he and the poet W. H. Auden considered Thomas a poet “whom we had little or no hope of ever equaling.” What separates Thomas from his contemporaries, the author argues, are Thomas's keen powers of observation, familiar knowledge of nature, and colloquial, authoritative manner imbued with sincerity and honesty.

I remember in 1927, my last year at Oxford, drawing up with W. H. Auden a conspectus of twentieth century poets. There were three columns. The left-hand column contained a list of poets whom we already excelled: it was a long list. The centre column...