Product Description

Arranged by dates of death, this anthology gives the short life-and-death stories of 66 British poets killed in northern France and Belgium, including an account of the battle in which each died, with extracts from their poems, letters and diaries. The chronology begins with Robert Sterling, killed in April 1915; it ends with Wilfred Owen's death a week before the Armistice in 1918, the early optimism and fervour now replaced by cynicism and awful reality. From the trenches, behind the lines, in hospitals and on leave, these soldier-poets wrote of the "carnage incomparable", the suffering and grim conditions they experienced, and of the solace they found in comradeship and the continuing cycle of nature amid the horrors of war. Although some names are well known - Owen, Rosenberg, Sorley and Edward Thomas - others are less so, but the intimate personal accounts in their letters home, and in diaries and poems, afford us a glimpse into the intense emotional experience of the combatant at war.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #977806 in Books
• Published on: 1998-08-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 481 pages

Customer Reviews

Excellent summary of life and works of Great War Poets .
This extra-ordinary book gives numerous details of the life, the letters and the poems of 66 soldier-poets that died somewhere on the Western Front. It is well written, has interesting details I never found anywhere else. The formule is excellent. The wellknown poets are here, but also many I have never heard about (and some of them are SO good). The book has 480 pages - it even has maps and tells you where the poets are buried. I only hope Anne Powell (the editor of this anthology) will write a sequel in the same way on the poets that came out alive of this nightmare. Sometimes I search for a poet and when he is not in the book I realise this is because he still lived on 11-11-1918. The only reason I give four stars instead of five is because that sequel is not added here already... Of all the collections of World War One poetry this is one the best. Highly recommended.