Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology (Oxford World's Classics)

The First World War produced an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent. Its poets mark the conflict in ways that are both intensely personal and as enduring as any monument. Their lines have come to express the feelings of a nation about the horrors and consequences of war. This new anthology provides a definitive record of the achievements of the Great War poets and offers a fresh assessment of the work on the centenary of the Great War's outbreak. Focusing on the poets themselves, the book is organized by writer, not theme or chronology. It offers generous selections from the celebrated soldier-poets, including Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke, whilst also incorporating less well-known writing by civilian and women poets. It also includes two previously unpublished poems by Ivor Gurney. A general introduction charts the history of the war poets' reception and challenges prevailing myths about the war poets' progress from idealism to bitterness. The work of each poet is prefaced with a biographical account that sets the poems in their historical context. Although the War has now passed out of living memory, its haunting of our language and culture has not been exorcised. Its poetry survives because it continues to speak to and about us Content: Men who march away England to Germany in 1914 On the Belgian expatriation The pity of it In time of 'the breaking of nations' Before marching and after A New Year's Eve in war time I looked up from my writing According to the mighty working And there was a great calm / Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) -- Epitaph on an army of mercenaries / A.E. Housman (1859-1936) -- Field ambulance in retreat After the retreat Dedication / May Sinclair (1863-1946) -- On being asked for a war poem An Irish airman foresees his death / W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) -- For all we have and are Tin fish The children The trade My boy Jack The verdicts Mesopotamia Gethsemane Epitaphs A death-bed Justice The changelings The vineyard / Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) -- For the fallen / Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) -- May, 1915 June, 1915 The cenotaph / Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) -- Tipperary days Only a Boche Tri-colour / Robert Service (1874-1958) -- A private The owl In memoriam (Easter, 1915) This is no case of petty right or wrong Rain Roads The cherry trees No one cares less than I As the team's head-brass The trumpet / Edward Thomas (1878-1917) -- The messages Breakfast Hit Between the lines Strawberries Otterburn Air-raid / Wilfrid Gibson (1878-1962) -- At the Somme Unidentified / Mary Borden (1886-1968) -- The redeemer A working party The kiss A night attack Christ and the soldier They The poet as hero Blighters Base details The rear-guard The general Repression of war experience Counter-attack How to die Glory of women Everyone sang On passing the new Menin Gate / Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) -- 1914 / Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) -- Prayer for those on the staff Into battle / Julian Grenfell (1888-1915) -- Magpies in Picardy Song of Amiens / T.P. Cameron Wilson (1888-1918) -- I saw a man this morning / Patrick Shaw Stewart (1888-1917) -- Pain To the Prussians of England To his love The bugle Billet First time in Strange hells Farewell La rime Serenade Joyeuse et Durandal The Stokes gunners The Bohemians The retreat Signallers It is near Toussaints The silent one / Ivor Gurney (1890-1937). A worm fed on the heart of Corinth Break of day in the trenches August 1914 Louse hunting From France Returning, we hear the larks Dead man's dump Daughters of war Through these pale cold days / Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) -- The night patrol God! How I hate you, you young cheerful men! / Arthur Graeme West (1891-1917) -- Anthem for doomed youth The sentry Dulce et decorum est Insensibility Greater love Disabled Apologia pro poemate meo The show I saw his round mouth's crimson A terre Exposure Miners The last laugh Strange meeting Futility The send-off Mental cases The parable of the old man and the young Spring offensive Smile, smile, smile / Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) -- Præmaturi The falling leaves Afterwords / Margaret Postgate Cole (1893-1980) -- August 1914 Rouen Lamplight After the war The armistice For a girl Perfect epilogue / May Wedderburn Cannan (1893-1973) -- All the hills and vales along To Germany A hundred thousand million mites we go Two sonnets When you see millions of the mouthless dead / Charles Sorley (1895-1915) -- It's a queer time A dead Boche Corporal Stare A child's nightmare Two fusiliers Sergeant-major Money Recalling war / Robert Graves (1895-1985) -- from In parenthesis / David Jones (1895-1974) -- Festubert: the old German line Thiepval Wood 1916 seen from 1921 Illusions Concert party: Busseboom Vlamertinghe: passing the chateau, July 1917 La Quinque Rue Trench nomenclature Can you remember? Ancre sunshine / Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) -- Winter warfare The soldier addresses his body Advice to a girl from the war Trench poets War and peace Moonrise over battlefield / Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) -- Music-hall and trench songs: Never mind Mademoiselle from Armenteers Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag Fred Karno's army I want to go home The bells of hell If it's a German, guns up! Après la guerre fini The old barbed wire Hush! Here comes a whizz-bang That shit shute Bombed last night I wore a tunic Good-bye-ee! Oh! It's a lovely war. The First World War produced an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent, poets whose words commemorate the conflict more personally and as enduringly as monuments in stone. Lines such as'What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?'and'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old'have come to express the feelings of a nation about the horrors and aftermath of war. This new anthology provides a definitive record of the achievements of the Great War poets. As well as offering generous selections from the celebrated soldier-poets, including Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, and Ivor Gurney, it also incorporates less well-known writing by civilian and women poets. Music hall and trench songs provide a further lyrical perspective on the War. A general introduction charts the history of the war poets'reception and challenges prevailing myths about the war poets'progress from idealism to bitterness. The work of each poet is prefaced with a biographical account that sets the poems in their historical context. Although the War has now passed out of living memory, its haunting of our language and culture has not been exorcised. Its poetry survives because it continues to speak to and about us. "The First World War produced an extraordinary flowering of poetic talent. Its poets mark the conflict in ways that are both intensely personal and as enduring as any monument. Their lines have come to express the feelings of a nation about the horrors and consequences of war. This new anthology provides a definitive record of the achievements of the Great War poets and offers a fresh assessment of the work on the centenary of the Great War's outbreak. Focusing on the poets themselves, the book is organized by writer, not theme or chronology. It offers generous selections from the celebrated soldier-poets, including Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke, whilst also incorporating less well-known writing by civilian and women poets. It also includes two previously unpublished poems by Ivor Gurney. A general introduction charts the history of the war poets' reception and challenges prevailing myths about the war poets' progress from idealism to bitterness. The work of each poet is prefaced with a biographical account that sets the poems in their historical context." -- Publisher's description. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) A. E. Housman ( (1859-1936) May Sinclair (1863-1939) W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) Lauence Binyon (1869-1943) Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) Robert Service (1874-1958) Edward Thomas (1878-1917) Wilfrid Gibson (1878-1962) Mary Borden (1886-1968) Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) Rupert Brooke (1887-1915) Julian Grenfell (1888-1915) T. P. Cameron Wilson (1888-1918) Patrick Shaw Stewart (1888-1917) Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) Arthur Graeme West (1891-1917) Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) Margaret Postgate Cole (1893-1980) May Wedderburn Cannan (1893-1973) Charles Sorley (1895-1915) Robert Graves (1895-1985) David Jones (1895-1974) Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) Music-hall and trench songs. A new anthology that combines generous selections from well-known soldier poets such as Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon with work by civilian and women writers. A general introduction places Great War poetry in its contexts and the work of each poet is prefaced with a biographical account that explains the circumstances of composition.