‘Bite the day to the core’: Transreading Edward Thomas

Explore the wide oeuvre of Edward Thomas as inspiration for your own writing, as we dive into nature, symbolism, the past, idleness, and our own glorious complexities.

What do Edward Thomas’s ‘Liberty’, ‘The Glory’, ‘O thou whose face hath felt the winter’s wind’, and ‘Ode to a Nightingale’ have in common? As we explore Thomas’s wide oeuvre to answer this question, these poems, and others, will be used to inspire your own writing. We will explore and celebrate nature, symbolism, the past, idleness, and our own (and Edward Thomas’s) glorious complexity.

We won’t stop there! Edward Thomas wrote across many genres (novels, criticism, nature writing/non-fiction, and poetry), so we will delve into those to see how they can inform and develop your poems. Our five assignment areas will be: 1. Alienation and Memory, where we will explore Thomas’s ‘Parting’, ‘The Cherry Trees’, and Iain Crichton Smith’s ‘Alzheimers’; 2. Belonging, this week it’s Thomas’s ‘Sowing’, ‘Digging’, his nature writing, and Richard Jefferies’s The Story of My Heart; 3. Birds: how does Thomas represent birds in his poems? We’ll consider this in ‘The Owl’, ‘The Word’, and ‘Sedge-Warblers’; 4. Edward Thomas and Keats: Thomas’s predominant influence was Keats; this session is about nature and contradictions; 5. Nature’s Balm – war and the warring self: How can Thomas’s ‘The Lane’, ‘The Trumpet’, ‘Beauty’, and Larkin’s ‘The Explosion’ change how you see the world for the better?

Prepare to be surprised as photos, manuscripts, and contemporary poets illuminate Thomas’s poems, the world, and your place within it.

5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 20 Jan 2026. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.

Concessions & Accessibility

To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image credit: @filirovska

About Suzanne Conway View Profile

Suzanne Conway is a poet, writer, and teacher. She has published articles, essays, reviews, and many poems in magazines and anthologies, including The Poetry Review, The Dark Horse, The North, Acumen, The London Magazine, and elsewhere. She teaches at the University of Exeter where she recently submitted her PhD in Creative Writing. For her thesis she wrote a collection of poetry, The Things I Could Not Say, and a series of essays on “Tantalizing Vagueness” – Intimacy and Distance in Edward Thomas’s Poetry’. www.suzanneconway.co.uk.

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