First line: The sun used to shine while we two walked. Written at Hare Hall. Typescript, with corrections in Eleanor Farjeon's hand. The typescript matches the version in the Blue Notebook (in private ownership), and Eleanor's annotations match the second draft which is held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
First line: The sun used to shine while we two walked. Written at Hare Hall. Manuscript draft in ink. Not recorded in R. George Thomas, The Collected Poems of Edward Thomas (1978).
First line: Here again (she said) is March the third. Written in Steep. Typescript. Manuscript alterations in Eleanor Farjeon's hand, lines 6-8 the most heavily corrected, also 9, 13 and 20, which probably reflect the editing mentioned in Thomas' letters to her, printed in E. Farjeon, Edward Thomas: The Last Four Years (1958), p. 132. (1) 'Perhaps I shall be able to mend March the 3rd. I know it must be either mended or ended'. (28 Apr 1915); (2) 'I have mended March 3rd too, you see'. (29 Apr 1915).
The letter provides a poet's view of the life 'behind the line' and yet heroically does not reveal the actual horrors of the trenches, but focuses on the few small moments of beauty that the poet finds to contemplate and share with the reader.