{
 "id": "edward-thomas/wind-and-mist",
 "title": "Wind and Mist",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edward Thomas",
 "poet_slug": "edward-thomas",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Last Poems",
 "book_slug": "last-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 27,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1918,
  "venue": "Last Poems (1918)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edward-thomas_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22423",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22732",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collected_Poems/LMsEAQAAIAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Two_Poems/3ycPAAAAQAAJ"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 73,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 55,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "They met inside the gateway that gives the view,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A hollow land as vast as heaven. “It is",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A pleasant day, sir.” “A very pleasant day.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“And what a view here. If you like angled fields",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of grass and grain bounded by oak and thorn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here is a league. Had we with Germany",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To play upon this board it could not be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More dear than April has made it with a smile.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fields beyond that league close in together",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And merge, even as our days into the past,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Into one wood that has a shining pane",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of water. Then the hills of the horizon⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That is how I should make hills had I to show",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One who would never see them what hills were like.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Yes. Sixty miles of South Downs at one glance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sometimes a man feels proud at them, as if",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He had just created them with one mighty thought.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“That house, though modern, could not be better planned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For its position. I never liked a new",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "House better. Could you tell me who lives in it?”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“No one.” “Ah⁠—and I was peopling all",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those windows on the south with happy eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The terrace under them with happy feet;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Girls⁠—” “Sir, I know. I know. I have seen that house",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Through mist look lovely as a castle in Spain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And airier. I have thought: ‘ ’Twere happy there",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To live.’ And I have laughed at that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Because I lived there then.” “Extraordinary.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Yes, with my furniture and family",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Still in it, I, knowing every nook of it",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And loving none, and in fact hating it.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Dear me! How could that be? But pardon me.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“No offence. Doubtless the house was not to blame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But the eye watching from those windows saw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many a day, day after day, mist⁠—mist",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like chaos surging back⁠—and felt itself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alone in all the world, marooned alone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We lived in clouds, on a cliff’s edge almost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(You see), and if clouds went, the visible earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lay too far off beneath and like a cloud.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I did not know it was the earth I loved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until I tried to live there in the clouds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the earth turned to cloud.” “You had a garden",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of flint and clay, too.” “True; that was real enough.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The flint was the one crop that never failed.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The clay first broke my heart, and then my back;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the back heals not. There were other things",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Real, too. In that room at the gable a child",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was born while the wind chilled a summer dawn:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never looked grey mind on a greyer one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Than when the child’s cry broke above the groans.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I hope they were both spared.” “They were. Oh yes!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But flint and clay and childbirth were too real",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For this cloud-castle. I had forgot the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pray do not let me get on to the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You would not understand about the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It is my subject, and compared with me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Those who have always lived on the firm ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Are quite unreal in this matter of the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There were whole days and nights when the wind and I",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Between us shared the world, and the wind ruled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And I obeyed it and forgot the mist.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My past and the past of the world were in the wind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Now you may say that though you understand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And feel for me, and so on, you yourself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Would find it different. You are all like that",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If once you stand here free from wind and mist:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I might as well be talking to wind and mist.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You would believe the house-agent’s young man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who gives no heed to anything I say.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Good morning. But one word. I want to admit",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That I would try the house once more, if I could;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As I should like to try being young again.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}