Analysis of Early One Morning

Edward Thomas 1878 (London Borough of Lambeth) – 1917 (Pas-de-Calais)



Early one morning in May I set out,
And nobody I knew was about.
I'm bound away for ever,
Away somewhere, away for ever.

There was no wind to trouble the weathercocks.
I had burnt my letters and darned my socks.

No one knew I was going away,
I thought myself I should come back some day.

I heard the brook through the town gardens run.
O sweet was the mud turned to dust by the sun.

A gate banged in a fence and banged in my head.
'A fine morning, sir', a shepherd said.

I could not return from my liberty,
To my youth and my love and my misery.

The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet,
The only sweet thing that is not also fleet.
I'm bound away for ever,
Away somehwere, away for ever.


Scheme aaBb cc dd ee ff gg hhBb
Poetic Form
Metre 1011001111 0111101 1101110 01101110 111111001 1111100111 111111001 111111111 1101101101 11101111101 01100101011 011010101 1110111100 11101101100 01101011111 01011111101 1101110 01101110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 688
Words 142
Sentences 13
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 30
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 76
Words per stanza (avg) 20
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 06, 2023

43 sec read
164

Edward Thomas

Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh poet and essayist. more…

All Edward Thomas poems | Edward Thomas Books

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