HAPPY EASTER 2016! 

 

What does Easter call to mind? Do you think of Easter bunnies and pussy willows, coloured eggs and chicklets, hymns and family visits? Or do you associate Easter with freetime and weekend trips, no work, no school, just time for yourselves?

At Easter 1915, Edward Thomas might have thought of all this. He enjoyed long walks in the country and his writings show that he had always had an eye for nature. After the first months of war, however, he could not help noticing that the world was different, even in the most remote and peaceful places. He could still remember a time when young people used to gather spring flowers for their loved ones, roam through the woods or enjoy celebrations with friends and family at home. After all, this was but a year ago.

Flowers, wood, home, sweethearts - it was all still there.

And yet, he could no longer see it the same way...

 

 

  IN MEMORIAM (Easter 1915) 

 

Annotation:

Edward Thomas probably wrote the lines above on Easter Mondy, 5th April 1915. Easter 1915 saw the first use of gas in warfare. Thomas would be killed on Easter Monday two years later during the Battle of Arras in France.

Source:

Edward Thomas, Selected Poems. Ed. by Matthew Hollis, Faber & Faber, 1914

Illustrations:

- A 1907 Postcard Featuring the Easter Bunny

- Eugen Wolff-Filseck (1873–1937): Early Spring. Young Woman Gathering Flowers in the Wood