The Child on the Cliffs

By Edward Thomas 1878–1917 Edward Thomas

Mother, the root of this little yellow flower

Among the stones has the taste of quinine.

Things are strange to-day on the cliff. The sun shines so bright,

And the grasshopper works at his sewing-machine

So hard. Here’s one on my hand, mother, look;

I lie so still. There’s one on your book.

But I have something to tell more strange. So leave

Your book to the grasshopper, mother dear,—

Like a green knight in a dazzling market-place,—

And listen now. Can you hear what I hear

Far out? Now and then the foam there curls

And stretches a white arm out like a girl’s.

Fishes and gulls ring no bells. There cannot be

A chapel or church between here and Devon,

With fishes or gulls ringing its bell,—hark!—

Somewhere under the sea or up in heaven.

“It’s the bell, my son, out in the bay

On the buoy. It does sound sweet to-day.”

Sweeter I never heard, mother, no, not in all Wales.

I should like to be lying under that foam,

Dead, but able to hear the sound of the bell,

And certain that you would often come

And rest, listening happily.

I should be happy if that could be.

Source: Last Poems (1918)

Biography

Despite affinities with the Georgian movement of the early twentieth century, Edward Thomas's verse consistently defies classification. Like the work of his Georgian contemporaries, his verse displays a profound love of natural beauty and, at times, an archaic use of diction. However, Thomas's personalized voice and intensity of vision give his poetry an artistic force which the Georgians never approached.

Thomas was born of . . .

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