Edward Thomas: The Origins of his Poetry is a critical study of the early twentieth century English poet Edward Thomas (1878–1917), who is known for the poems he wrote during World War I. Judy Kendall offers close readings of Thomas’s poems, prose, and letters, all the while illuminating his close relationship to nature; connections between his approach to composition and the writing of Sigmund Freud, Virginia Woolf, and William James; and the influence of Japanese aesthetics on his works. Kendall’s study also presents surprising and insightful ideas about poetic composition in general.