This talk explores the relationship between nature and mental health in the poetry of Edward Thomas and reflects on the contemporary relevance of the poet's treatment of this subject. Throughout his life Edward Thomas suffered from severe bouts of depression that he examined with unflinching honesty in his poems. Thomas’s mental health was intimately connected with the need for deep engagement with the natural world as a way to ease his suffering. This talk will draw upon close readings of the poems to consider how nature helped Edward Thomas’s mental health, the extent of its impact on his wellbeing and the lessons his poetic reflections on the subject can offer to contemporary understanding of this complex illness.

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