- Hardcover: 262 pages
- Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (21 Feb 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0521884039
- ISBN-13: 978-0521884037
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 2.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,699,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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'This book provides a welcome overview of poets' responses to war and should furnish teachers with valuable ideas and insights.' Tom Rank, Literary Connections
'The Poetry of War offers compelling evidence that poetry has played an important role in shaping how both soldiers and civilians have viewed war for thousands of years … Winn is writing not only for his fellow literary scholars but also for anyone who cares about war and truth …' David Rachels, The Journal of Military History
'The Poetry of War offers compelling evidence that poetry has played an important role in shaping how both soldiers and civilians have viewed war for thousands of years … Winn is writing not only for his fellow literary scholars but also for anyone who cares about war and truth …' David Rachels, The Journal of Military History
Product Description
Poets from Homer to Bruce Springsteen have given voice to the intensity, horror, and beauty of war. The greatest war poets praise the victor while mourning the victim; they honor the dead while raising deep questions about the meaning of honor. Poets have given memorable expression to the personal motives that send men forth to fight: idealism, shame, comradeship, revenge. They have also helped shape the larger ideas that nations and cultures invoke as incentives for warfare: patriotism, religion, empire, chivalry, freedom. The Poetry of War shows how poets have shaped and questioned our basic ideas about warfare. Reading great poetry, Winn argues, can help us make informed political judgments about current wars. From the poems he discusses, readers will learn how soldiers in past wars felt about their experiences, and why poets in many periods and cultures have embraced war as a grand and challenging subject.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The Poetry of War
15 April 2008
Format:Paperback
War brings out the best in us--heroism, nobility, and sacrifice--and the worst in us--hatred, savagery, and vengefulness.
From ancient times to the present, poets have explored the experience of war. War is a subject of most of the great western epics--the Iliad, Aeneid, Beowulf, Chanson de Roland, Paradise Lost, etc. War is the subject for modern day popular poet such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
To better understand the relationship between war and poetry, I read The Poetry of War, by James Winn. Though a professor of English at Boston University, Winn writes in a clear compelling a clear and avoids academic jargon.
What is like to face death or to kill another man? Perhaps only a poet can convey a sense of the emotions of men at war. Winn shows how poets from Homer to Randall Jarrell have praised heroes while raising questions about the basic nature of heroism, celebrated victors but wondered about the ultimate bitter fruits of victory, and found the passion and energy of war both enthralling and repulsive.
While awaiting the poet who can explain what we are doing in Iraq, I recommend that you read The Poetry of War.
From ancient times to the present, poets have explored the experience of war. War is a subject of most of the great western epics--the Iliad, Aeneid, Beowulf, Chanson de Roland, Paradise Lost, etc. War is the subject for modern day popular poet such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
To better understand the relationship between war and poetry, I read The Poetry of War, by James Winn. Though a professor of English at Boston University, Winn writes in a clear compelling a clear and avoids academic jargon.
What is like to face death or to kill another man? Perhaps only a poet can convey a sense of the emotions of men at war. Winn shows how poets from Homer to Randall Jarrell have praised heroes while raising questions about the basic nature of heroism, celebrated victors but wondered about the ultimate bitter fruits of victory, and found the passion and energy of war both enthralling and repulsive.
While awaiting the poet who can explain what we are doing in Iraq, I recommend that you read The Poetry of War.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Skilled and mature literary criticism, offered with values-based passion
5 Nov 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have read many books about war and I have read many books of and about poetry and this book is one of the best of either, all the more remarkable for its unusual joining of the two. Thankfully, and to my surprise and delight, this is not just another survey of war poetry. It is a series of essays ABOUT war poetry and the author analyzes the values implied by the way each poem is written, as well as the cultural context that no doubt influenced the poems' authors. This is one of the most stimulating and (dare I say it?) inspiring books I have ever read. It is rare indeed that a book causes everything I have taken for granted about a given subject and persuasively asks me to look again. What I like best about this book is the author's moral passion, his guiding motivation and perspective that poetry should not and cannot be separated from authentic reality--or else it is false, no matter how beautifully written.
As with any other kind of writing, we should judge poetry not merely by its eloquence or its claims, but by its truth and the consequences of its influence. Thank you, James Winn, for your clarity and for the great treasure of your book.
The first two chapters on Honor, Shame, and Slaughter that reexamine the romanticization of Medieval war images by the poets of World War I and the sanitization of Homer's Iliad to serve the needs of English gentlemen are a revelation.
As with any other kind of writing, we should judge poetry not merely by its eloquence or its claims, but by its truth and the consequences of its influence. Thank you, James Winn, for your clarity and for the great treasure of your book.
The first two chapters on Honor, Shame, and Slaughter that reexamine the romanticization of Medieval war images by the poets of World War I and the sanitization of Homer's Iliad to serve the needs of English gentlemen are a revelation.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time
3 July 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book after hearing its author, James Winn, reading some of it on National Public Radio on Memorial Day. The author wisely explained how invaluable poetry is in describing the human condition, our pain and suffering, our joys and sorrows. Just as art and music define us, so do our words. This book, brief though it is, speaks to my heart. The knowledge that many of the poets died during battle and their poetry lived after them makes it all the more poignant. Thank you for gathering these pieces of young men's souls to share with us, Dr Winn.
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