Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop— The name, because one afternoon Of heat the express train drew up there Unvisited. There the grass was dry, And there were no leaves in the trees, And the sky was clear and blue, With a soft breeze whispering through.

A crowd of air was left upon the grass, A purple patch, dark and wet with rain. Then I saw the sky, a perfect mass, Of white and silver, with no pain, Except for that one small, sweet sound— A bird’s call in the air, around.

And I remember everything In Adlestrop, though nothing more occurred Than the broken shadow of the train’s passing. And I knew that I would return one day, To find myself in the same stillness, That sweetness of nature, so still, so clear, As if time had never passed there, near.

• Edward Thomas