The First World War produced some of the most haunting and memorable poetry of our age. In this compelling anthology, the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion guides us through both the horror and the pity of that conflict, from the trenches of the Western Front to reflections from our own age. With a selection of our best-known war poets, this collection also returns lesser known pieces to the light and extends the selection right through to the present day. The text serves to remind us how poetry of that time has, more than any other art from, come to stand testament to the grief and outrage occasioned by World War I.
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"'Motion's achievement with this new anthology is in including poems written by women - Eleanor Farjeon, Helen Mackay, Rose Macaulay - and by poets of later generations who are responding to the lingering afterglow of that great conflagration.' New Statesman; 'A slim but beautifully produced volume of some of the most haunting, compelling and memorable poetry of its era.' The Times"
--This text refers to an alternate
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About the Author
Andrew Motion was Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009; he is Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway College, University of London, and co-founder of the online Poetry Archive. He has received numerous awards for his poetry, and has published four celebrated biographies. His group study The Lamberts won the Somerset Maugham Award and his authorised life of Philip Larkin won the Whitbread Prize for Biography. Andrew Motion's novella The Invention of Dr Cake (2003) was described as 'amazingly clever' by the Irish Times and praised for 'brilliant and almost hallucinatory vividness' by the Sunday Telegraph. His memoir, In the Blood (2006), was described as 'the most moving and exquisitely written account of childhood loss I have ever read' in the Independent on Sunday. His most recent collection of poems, The Cinder Path (2009), was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. Andrew Motion was knighted for his services to poetry in 2009.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bringing out the mpteenth WWI poetry volume, any compiler should know, is a precarious enterprise. 80-odd years on, one can hardly sustantiate that there would be a shortage of anthologies in the domain.
More, the ultimate standard today should be the moulding into literary form of the unutterable and existential experience of waiting, worrying and mourning. Ideally, the vulnerability - whether physical or mental - should remain as unimpaired today as it used to in those trouble-ridden days.
Some specific lines of approach about this edition are the noticeable focus on Edward Thomas, whose moving 'Rain' is featured on the dust jacket, and Gurney, who seems to confirm the undisputed stature of a giant in the genre he acquired only recently.
Anby selection is debatable, and we would have included more Blunden and not omitted Leighton, McCrae, Frankau and Ledwidge. These might yet have heightened the poet laureate's search for poetry that remains actual even topical while transcending the anecdotal at the same time.
More, the ultimate standard today should be the moulding into literary form of the unutterable and existential experience of waiting, worrying and mourning. Ideally, the vulnerability - whether physical or mental - should remain as unimpaired today as it used to in those trouble-ridden days.
Some specific lines of approach about this edition are the noticeable focus on Edward Thomas, whose moving 'Rain' is featured on the dust jacket, and Gurney, who seems to confirm the undisputed stature of a giant in the genre he acquired only recently.
Anby selection is debatable, and we would have included more Blunden and not omitted Leighton, McCrae, Frankau and Ledwidge. These might yet have heightened the poet laureate's search for poetry that remains actual even topical while transcending the anecdotal at the same time.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1 review
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fine selection
29 Nov 2004
By James Windle
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Andrew has made a fine selection here. He gives proper weight to Wilfred Owen who is by far the best first world war poet and the best war poet of all time. Ivor Gurney is also given his due. I would rate Ivor as the second best war poet or at least equal to Sigfried Sassoon.
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