The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry (Oxford Handbooks of Literature)

The Handbook ranges widely and in depth across 20th-century war poetry, incorporating detailed discussions of some of the key poets of the period. It is an essential resource for scholars of particular poets and for those interested in wider debates. Contributors include some of the most important international poetry critics of our time. Contents List of Contributors Introduction PART I: BEGINNINGS 1. Fighting Talk: Victorian War Poetry 2. ‘Graver things... braver things’: Hardy’s War Poetry 3. From Dark Defile to Gethsemane: Rudyard Kipling’s War Poetry PART II: THE GREAT WAR 4. War Poetry and the Realm of the Senses: Owen and Rosenberg 5. ‘Many Sisters to Many Brothers’: The Women Poets of the First World War 6. Wilfred Owen 7. Shakespeare and the Great War 8. Was there a Scottish War Literature? Scotland, Poetry, and the First World War 9. War Poetry, or the Poetry of War? Isaac Rosenberg, David Jones, Ivor Gurney 10. The Great War and Modernist Poetry 11. A War of Friendship: Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon 12. ‘Easter, 1916’: Yeats’s First World War Poem PART III: ENTRE DEUX GUERRES 13. ‘What the dawn will bring to light’: Credulity and Commitment in the Ideological Construction of ‘Spain’ 14. Unwriting the Good Fight: W. H. Auden’s ‘Spain 1937’ 15. War, Politics, and Disappearing Poetry: Auden, Yeats, Empson PART IV: THE SECOND WORLD WAR 16. ‘Others have come before you’: The Influence of Great War Poetry on Second World War Poets 17. ‘Death’s Proletariat’: Scottish Poets of the Second World War 18. Occupying New Territory: Alun Llywelyn-Williams and Welsh-Language Poetry of the Second World War 19. The Muse that Failed: Poetry and Patriotism during the Second World War 20. Louis MacNeice’s War 21. Sidney Keyes in Historical Perspective PART V: CONTINUITIES IN MODERN WAR POETRY 22. Anthologizing War 23. Women’s Poetry of the First and Second World Wars 24. War Pastorals 25. The Poetry of Pain 26. ‘Down in the terraces between the targets’: Civilians 27. The War Remains of Keith Douglas and Ted Hughes 28. ‘For Isaac Rosenberg’: Geoffrey Hill, Michael Longley, Cathal Ó Searcaigh 29. The Fury and the Mire PART VI: ‘POST-WAR’ POETRY 30. ‘This is plenty. This is more than enough’: Poetry and the Memory of the Second World War 31. British Holocaust Poetry: Songs of Experience 32. Quiet Americans: Responses to War in Some British and American Poetry of the 1960s 33. Pointing to East and West: British Cold War Poetry 34. ‘Dichtung und Wahrheit’: Contemporary War and the Non-combatant Poet PART VII: NORTHERN IRELAND 35. ‘That dark permanence of ancient forms’: Negotiating with the Epic in Northern Irish Poetry of the Troubles 36. ‘Stalled in the Pre-articulate’: Heaney, Poetry, and War 37. Unavowed Engagement: Paul Muldoon as War Poet Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Thirty-seven chapters, written by leading literary critics from across the world, describe the latest thinking about twentieth-century war poetry. The book maps both the uniqueness of each war and the continuities between poets of different wars, while the interconnections between the literatures of war and peacetime, and between combatant and civilian poets, are fully considered. The focus is on Britain and Ireland, but links are drawn with the poetry of the United States and continental Europe.

The Oxford Handbook feeds a growing interest in war poetry and offers, in toto, a definitive survey of the terrain. It is intended for a broad audience, made up of specialists and also graduates and undergraduates, and is an essential resource for both scholars of particular poets and for those interested in wider debates about modern poetry. This scholarly and readable assessment of the field will provide an important point of reference for decades to come.

Thirty-seven chapters, written by leading literary critics from across the world, describe the latest thinking about twentieth-century war poetry. The book maps both the uniqueness of each war and the continuities between poets of different wars, while the interconnections between the literatures of war and peacetime, and between combatant and civilian poets, are fully considered. The focus is on Britain and Ireland, but links are drawn with the poetry of the United States and continental Europe. The Oxford Handbook feeds a growing interest in war poetry and offers, in toto , a definitive survey of the terrain. It is intended for a broad audience, made up of specialists and also graduates and undergraduates, and is an essential resource for both scholars of particular poets and for those interested in wider debates about modern poetry. This scholarly and readable assessment of the field will provide an important point of reference for decades to come. This handbook ranges across 20th century war poetry discussing some of the key poets of the period. It is an essential resource for scholars of particular poets and for those interested in wider debates. Contributors include some of the most important international poetry critics of our time