War and the Pity of War [Hardcover]

Neil Philip (Author), Michael McCurdy (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 1998

This moving and thought-provoking anthology brings together more than 70 poems inspired by the horror and heroism of war. From the eleventh century B.C. to the present day, including translations from Chinese, Latin, Greek, French, Russian, and Japanese, and ranging from poignant lamentation to sardonic humor, a wide selection of voices speak about every aspect of human conflict, exploring the universal themes that have moved poets throughout the ages. Illustrated with striking scratchboard drawings, the poems collected here reveal both the shifts in people's attitudes over time and the ways in which all wars are the same. Brief historical annotations are provided. Index of poets, index of titles and first lines.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up-A strikingly illustrated collection of poems with a decidedly anti-war sentiment. The selections, covering conflicts from ancient Persia to modern-day Bosnia, are by a wide variety of poets, from the well known (Tennyson, Whitman, Sandburg, Auden), to the obscure (Anakreon from ancient Greece and 11th-century Chinese poet Bunno), to relatively unknown contemporary poets from all over the world. Most of the poems, however, arise from experiences of the two World Wars. They represent a variety of styles and almost all are shaded by an elegiac mood expressing the misery and horrors of war. Though many of the works can be found in other anthologies, the artwork here enhances them all, even Yeats's masterful "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death." The stark and simple scratchboard drawings are reminiscent of the Ernie Pyle illustrations from World War II and are as memorable as the best propaganda. The poems are easily accessed by three indexes: poet, title, and first line. The only drawback is that, despite the diversity of voices and experiences, the one-sided presentation tends to come off as one-noted and diminishes the power of the individual works.
Herman Sutter, Saint Pius X High School, Houston, TX
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6 and up. With so much attention focused on Spielberg's war movie, Saving Private Ryan, teens will be open to this somber anthology and to the questions the poems raise for each of us. Is war about glory, as in Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" and in the traditional war songs of the Ojibwa? Or is war about horror, as in most twentieth-century poetry? Philip's answer in his fine introduction is that even the poetry about the cruelty of war records the bravery and dignity of soldiers and civilians. As in all noteworthy world anthologies, the meaning is also in the connections across time and place (from ancient China and classical Greece to Hiroshima, Vietnam, and Bosnia), with much in translation from the French, German, Russian, Japanese, and more. At the center are the great World War I poets, many of them soldiers, who saw not the honor, but the futility. A brief note with each poem indicates when it was written and which war it refers to. Wherever they come from, the voices are as plain and recognizable as Auden's Roman Wall soldier who doesn't know why he's there ("I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose"). The book design is spacious and open, with thick paper and clear type, and Michael McCurdy's powerful scratchboard drawings in black and white, some small, some full-page, show the humanity and the ruin of those who came back and those left "hanging on the old barbed wire." Hazel Rochman

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Clarion Books; First Edition edition (September 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395849829
• ISBN-13: 978-0395849828
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,800,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just Guts and Glory, April 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: War and the Pity of War (Hardcover)

This brilliant collection of poems illustrates that war is more than just fighting and having fun while toting a big gun. People you know and care about can get hurt or even die. Makes you think.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars spunkys reveiw, May 20, 2005

By 

coby spunky "spunky" - See all my reviews

This review is from: War and the Pity of War (Hardcover)

Have you ever wished there was no war. "WAR and THE PITY OF WARS" is book full of poetry about war and the soldiers survive. Not all of the poems are the same. Just like how wars aren't the same. These poems tell you about war and how it is in combat and how the life is behind enemy lines.

The "WAR and THE PITY OF WAR" is an awesome book. It has some emotionally wrenching parts. This book relates to the war we are fighting in Iraq. The wars today are more because the military invented high tech weapons that can from a distance.

I would recommend you check out "WAR and THE PITYOF WARS". If you like to read about war and the consequences of war you should definitely read it!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, May 18, 2005

By 

swaseta "swaseta" - See all my reviews

This review is from: War and the Pity of War (Hardcover)

"War and the Pity of War"

Have you ever wished that there were know such thing as war? "War and the Pity of War" is a poetry book about war. The poems are different in many ways because people have different feelings about war.
"War and the Pity of War" is a great book. It was sad because the war that is going on right now is much worst than the wars that were going on in the book. This book made me think about the war that is going on right now. The war is worst these days because scientists have come up with new deadly weapons.
I will recommend "War and the Pity of War" to anyone that likes to read poetry. This book will be a great book of people who like action or war books because you will want to read this book again and again.