The natural world and mankind’s relationship to it are favourite themes for many poets. The three represented here (or rather, four, since Li Bai’s Chinese miniatures are heard in Vikram Seth’s brilliant English translations) all use metaphor in widely differing ways, responding to the times and places in which they find themselves: Edward Thomas’s love of the bright open road, yet always returning to lone path of the dark forest; Amy Lowell’s garden, cultivated and contained, yet unable to prevent influence from outside—bright star, stormy wind, absent friend; Li Bai’s wonderfully intense response to whatever he sees, from the moonlight entering his room to a ship’s sail disappearing into the horizon. Yet, for all their differences, their common humanity and sensitivity to nature can still move our hearts and minds in the here and now.

A road less travelled
Solo cantata for tenor with guitar and/or string quartet
The title A road less travelled refers to the well-known poem by Robert Frost, ‘The Road Not Taken’. Less well known is that the poem is about Edward Thomas. As Frost explained, Thomas was “a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn’t go the other”. Its gentle mocking of indecision has been misunderstood and taken for something more serious, not least by Thomas himself (it has been suggested that it was influential in his decision to enlist in the army).

When the two first met in 1913, Thomas was known as a nature writer and book reviewer. Frost heard something distinctive in Thomas’s style, and during their walks together through the countryside around Dymock and the Malvern Hills in the summer of 1914, he encouraged his friend to turn to poetry.

Thomas produced some 140 poems in little more than two years before his death at the battle of Arras in 1917. Roads are a favourite theme. He refers to the war, but it is never centre-stage in his verse, which is focussed on the natural world and our existential relationship to it. In Andrew Motion’s words, Thomas’s poems “brilliantly prove that you can speak softly and yet let your voice carry a long way”.

A road less travelled was commissioned by the Autumn in Malvern Festival. The first performance was given by Mark Padmore (tenor), Morgan Szymanski (guitar), and the Sacconi String Quartet, Great Malvern Priory, 24 September 2017.

The garden path
Song cycle for mezzo-soprano and string quartet or piano
The American poet Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was born into a prominent New England family. The house in Brookline near Boston, where she lived all her life, was set in a large and luxuriant garden which features in many of her poems. She was inspired by the possibilities it offered her to exercise a gift for colourful and sensuous description of the natural world, but, like many poets, she was also drawn to the garden as a rich and fertile source of metaphor when her thoughts ran deeper into considerations of the human condition.

The first version of The garden path (then titled “Four Garden Songs”) was commissioned by the Leeds Lieder Festival with funds provided by Martin Staniforth. The first performance was given by Anna Huntley (mezzo-soprano) and James Baillieu (piano) at the Howard Assembly Room, Grand Theatre, Leeds, 12 October 2013. Although it may still be performed with piano accompaniment, the work was substantially re-written for the mezzo Martha McLorinan and the Sacconi String Quartet, who gave the first performance for this recording.

Other earths and skies
Five miniatures after Li Bai for tenor and oboe
Li Bai (701-762) is recognised as one of China’s finest poets. He lived at a time of great cultural achievement, but also experienced the upheaval and misery of a terrible civil war. Although his writing can be vivid and exuberant, with an especially intense feeling for nature, it is often coloured by an underlying melancholy.

The five short poems presented here cover a wide range of subject matter: homesickness; young apes playing in the moonlight; the consolations of solitude; a spectacular waterfall; parting from an old friend. The translations from the Chinese were made by Vikram Seth and appear in his collection Three Chinese Poets (1992).

I was introduced to the idea of a work for voice and oboe when I heard Mark Padmore sing Vaughan Williams’ last completed work, Ten Blake Songs. I remember Mark saying that the songs didn’t get many performances simply because there’s nothing else to programme with them. So I thought maybe I could do something about that!

Other earths and skies was commissioned by the Brinkburn Music Festival. The first performance was given by Mark Padmore and Nicholas Daniel at Brinkburn Priory, Northumberland, 4 July 2010. My thanks go to Nicholas Daniel, from whom I learned much about composing for oboe. The revised version was made for Hugo Hymas, who records it here with Nicholas.

Alec Roth © 2026