Touring Around England
How did I get here? A plane from New Delhi last Thursday, the Underground, and a train from Paddington Station in London brought me to Worcester, England, a town in the Midlands noted for the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie by Oliver Cromwell in 1651, scene of the first and the final battles of the English Civil War. Seeing England and witnessing such a wide swath of history are goals I’ve held since high school days. It’s a dream come true.
Worcester, England
Known for glove-making, porcelain, a canal and its narrow riverboats that brought raw materials to Birmingham, shipped manufactured goods away, and battles of the English Civil War, including Oliver Cromwell’s defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1651, Worcester exudes history. The house where I’m staying with friends was once owned by the composer Edward Elgar.
Just as in Frost’s “Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood,” my journey in England consists of a series of connections: Seeing Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey and the names of the writers who died in World War I, including Edward Thomas. Connecting with Adlestrop Station through my host and realizing I would pass by its location on my way to Worcester. It seems that Thomas and Robert Frost had a connection, and Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” influenced Thomas’s decision to enlist during World War I:
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
The connections I’ve made on this trip amaze me: Students in India with my students in Winooski. Poetry that I teach resonates with sights I see on my tour of London and the Midlands. These bits of history enhance my teaching, whirling together my learning from the past and new learning of the moment. I continue to return to the principles of the Fulbright grant, to connect cultures … and here I am in the middle of that connection.
The Poem: Adlestrop Station
My host Robert reminded me of a famous poem and a railway station that no longer exists. The poet, Edward Thomas, was on his way to see the American poet Robert Frost, who lived in England at the time. The train stopped momentarily at Adlestrop Station, and Thomas wrote these words some time later to memorialize the day:
