Great Poets of World War I: Poetry from the Great War [Hardcover]

Jon Stallworthy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2002

In times of war and national calamity—writes Jon Stallworthy in his illuminating survey of the lives and work of twelve celebrated war poets—large numbers of people seldom seen in church or bookshop will turn for consolation and inspiration to religion and poetry. Never more so than in World War I did the poignant poetry of hundreds of young men scarred by battle reach so large and eager an audience. Among the most famous and memorable of these youthful voices were those of the strikingly handsome, golden-haired, nobly patriotic Rupert Brooke, dead at twenty-eight; the serious-minded, poignantly truthful Wilfred Owen, who was shot down, at twenty-five; and the defiant Siegfried Sassoon whose gallantry in the Somme Offensive earned him the Military Cross and nickname Mad Jack. Profiled in this volume, too, and illustrated throughout with photographs of the action they saw and manuscripts of the poems they wrote are Edmund Blunden, whose work is haunted by the war until his death in 1974; Isaac Rosenberg, the painter who captured the absurdity and horror of war in words; along with Julian Grenfell, Edward Thomas, Charles Hamilton Sorley, Frances Ledwidge, Ivor Gurney, David Jones, and Robert Graves. With access to the archives of the Imperial War Museum and its wide collection of rare color and black-and-white photographs, this volume beautifully combines art, poetry, biography, and the tragic, noble, bleak, and confounding experience that was the Great War.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This heavily illustrated work discusses 12 poets (e.g., Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves) who wrote during World War I, seven of whom did not survive. Each poet is covered in a separate chapter, which includes a brief synopsis of his family background and education but focuses on the individual as a developing poet before he enlisted in the service and then on the influence that the war and other war poets had on his work. Stallworthy (Oxford Univ.) here incorporates excerpts from letters and facsimiles of autograph manuscripts of poems. He provides good, close readings of one or two of each poet's work and ends each chapter with a handful of reprinted poems. The volume appears to be organized by grouping together poets with similar views of the war; thus, the poets with a romanticized view, whose early deaths stopped them from experiencing the war, begin the work. Although the coverage is brief, this is a very moving book. Recommended for all libraries.
Paolina Taglienti, New York
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786710985
• ISBN-13: 978-0786710980
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,899,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars reminded me of Lord of the Rings, January 15, 2011

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Great Poets of World War I: Poetry from the Great War (Hardcover)

There is a book called Great Poets of World War I, Poetry from the Great War (2002) by Jon Stallworthy that says a true poet has to tell the truth. After a few years of British soldiers fighting to keep their favorite spots at home from being overrun by invading Huns, Siegfried Loraine Sassoon received a sniper's bullet in his chest, returned to England, and in "an act of wilful defiance of military authority" made a statement that:

I believe that this war,
upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation,
has now become a war of aggresion and conquest. . . .
I have seen and endured the suffering of the troops,
and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings
for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. (p. 69).