# There's Nothing Like the Sun explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Edward Thomas.

## What happens

The speaker reflects on the unique and irreplaceable quality of sunlight in each month of the year, emphasizing that no day's sun is like another, and that this appreciation continues until death.

## Themes in this chapter

### Nature and the Seasons

The poem celebrates the sun's light across every month, highlighting the distinct character of each season.

### Memory and Time

The speaker recalls past suns and anticipates future ones, linking memory to the passage of time and mortality.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who meditates on the sun's varied beauty across the seasons.

### Starlings

The starling shakes the damson bough, whistling a song once sung by swallows.

## Key lines

> There's nothing like the sun as the year dies, Kind as it can be, this world being made so, To stones and men and beasts and birds and flies, To all things that it touches except snow

As the year ends, the sun's warmth is uniquely gentle to everything it touches—except snow.

_Opening lines establish the sun's universal kindness and its exception for snow._

> The south wall warms me: November has begun, Yet never shone the sun as fair as now

I feel the warmth of the south-facing wall; November has started, but the sun has never looked more beautiful.

_The speaker finds present beauty in November's sun, claiming it surpasses all previous Novembers._

> No day of any month but I have said— Or, if I could live long enough, should say— 'There's nothing like the sun that shines to-day.'

Every day of every month I have said—or would say if I lived long enough—that today's sun is incomparable.

_The speaker asserts that each day's sun is uniquely perfect, a sentiment he would repeat until death._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters/there-s-nothing-like-the-sun
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_5_se/chapters