Wilfred Owen
Books by Wilfred Owen
“He became the quintessential war poet, certainly in a British context. Not during his lifetime. But in England, Owen is a poet that everyone will have encountered in some way. Owen’s poetry sometimes gets described as ‘anti-war’. I don’t think I’d go that far. It’s important to note that he was not a conscientious objector, he was in uniform. He won a Military Cross. So he was actually quite a successful soldier, later on in his service. But he is a poet who highlights the horror of the war for many people, and is sceptical of ideas of heroism, service, duty, and all those other concepts brought to the fore by the government, church, and the right-wing press in terms of encouraging people to join up. It combines realism—an almost journalistic, unblinking focus on the realities—with very poetic language, which partly came from the strong influence of the Romantics.” Read more...
The best books on Poetry of the First World War
Guy Cuthbertson, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Wilfred Owen were recommended
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1
Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology
ed. Tim Kendall -
2
From the Line: Scottish War Poetry 1914-1945
ed. David Goldie and Roderick Watson -
3
The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
ed. George Walter -
4
The War Poems of Wilfred Owen
by Wilfred Owen, ed. John Stallworthy -
5
The Annotated Collected Poems
by Edward Thomas, ed. Edna Longley
The best books on Poetry of the First World War, recommended by Guy Cuthbertson
The best books on Poetry of the First World War, recommended by Guy Cuthbertson
Poetry written during the First World War has remained prominent in the public consciousness for more than a century; writers like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Robert Graves are still commonly studied in British schools and universities. Here, Guy Cuthbertson—literary scholar and author of an acclaimed biography of Owen—selects five books to give an overview of the poetry produced during the Great War.
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