HE was perhaps Hampshire’s finest poet.

Edward Thomas, who lived at Steep, near Petersfield, was a nature poet killed on the Western Front in 1917.

West Meon Theatre is staging The Dark Earth and the Light Sky, a play about Thomas later this month.

The unusual venue will be in a tent in the garden of the Thomas Lord pub in West Meon, near Alresford.

For the first time since its premiere at London’s Almeida Theatre in December 2012, theatre-goers will have the opportunity to see the play, by Nick Dear.

It explores the later life of Thomas when he regularly tramped the Hampshire Downs and the play was described by one critic as “searching, deeply-felt... in which honour has been done to a wonderful poet and a difficult man”.

His inspiration came from the Hampshire countryside and he influenced many poets, including W H Auden and Philip Larkin.

Although too old to be called up to fight in the Great War, he volunteered and was killed in the Battle of Arras in April, 1917.

The Poet’s Stone, a memorial to him, is set in the South Downs near Steep, at Shoulder of Mutton Hill.

Performance dates for The Dark Earth and the Light Sky are June 25-28 and June 30-July 2, with tickets available online via The West Meon Theatre website or you can request a postal booking form.

The Thomas Lord pub will be proposing a pre-theatre supper menu. Early booking for both play and supper is recommended.