The Sun Used to Shine [EDWARD THOMAS poem set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2015-05-27

Here is another of Edward Thomas' poems which I have set to music.

The pictures/video were taken last night walking through Winchester Cathedral Close then along College St to the Water Meadows of the River Itchen.

The Sun Used to Shine
BY EDWARD THOMAS

Dmaj 7 Em
The sun used to shine while we two walked
F#m G
Slowly together, paused and started
D Am7
Again, and sometimes mused, sometimes talked
Em7
As either pleased, and cheerfully parted
 
Each night. We never disagreed
Which gate to rest on. The to be
And the late past we gave small heed.
We turned from men or poetry
 
C#m7  F#m
To rumours of the war remote
C#m7  F#m
Only till both stood disinclined
B F#m
For aught but the yellow flavorous coat
C#m7
Of an apple wasps had undermined;
 
Or a sentry of dark betonies,
The stateliest of small flowers on earth,
At the forest verge; or crocuses
Pale purple as if they had their birth
 
In sunless Hades fields. The war
Came back to mind with the moonrise
Which soldiers in the east afar
Beheld then. Nevertheless, our eyes
 
Could as well imagine the Crusades
Or Caesar's battles. Everything
To faintness like those rumours fade—
Like the brook's water glittering
 
D A Bm7 C#m7
Under the moonlight—like those walks
D A
Now—like us two that took them, and
Bm7 C#m7 A
The fallen apples, all the talks
Em7 G
And silence—like memory's sand
 
When the tide covers it late or soon,
And other men through other flowers
In those fields under the same moon
Go talking and have easy hours.