Poetry

The poetry written during the First World War was often created as an elegiac response to the disaster of the war. The following essay examines the different portrayals of mourning present in the poetry of Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas, and Isaac Rosenberg. Whilst the poets appear to treat the theme of mourning in a slightly different manner, each poem is rendered a site of lamentation which displays the horror of the Great War. Somewhat poignantly, all three of the poets were killed in action,just like the soldiers eulogised in their works.

Read the essay: The Art of Mourning in First World War Poetry by Charlotte Barrett

#	Title	Description	Contributor
1	What is a War Poem?	In this Open Day taster lecture, Kate McLoughlin explores how we might define a war poem,...	Kate McLoughlin
2	World War I Poetry in England (lecture)	Lecture by Professor Langdon Hammer given as part of Open Yale courses, 'engl 310: Modern Poetry...	Langdon Hammer

#	Title	Description	Contributor
1	Edmund Blunden	Margi Blunden, daughter of Edmund Blunden, talks about her father and his work.	Margi Blunden
2	Impact of the 1914 – 1918 Poets	Adrian Barlow looks at the impact of World War One poets in the years immediately following the...	Adrian Barlow
3	'Earth Voices Whispering’: Reading Ireland’s Poetry of WWI: An Introduction	Professor Gerald Dawe relates the Irish poetry of World War One to the history of Ireland itself...	Gerald Dawe
4	David Jones	Often overlooked, Dr Stuart Lee introduces David Jones and his seminal work 'In Parenthesis'....	Stuart Lee
5	Isaac Rosenberg: ‘Fierce Imaginings’ – the Private and the Poet	Author and editor, Jean Liddiard, presents the life and work of Isaac Rosenberg.	Jean Liddiard
6	Ivor Gurney: A Poet born out of War	Dr Philip Lancaster presents the life of literary musician Ivor Guney, and introduces some the...	Philip Lancaster
7	Manuscripts	In this short talk Dr Stuart Lee introduces some of the primary sources of World War One poetry...	Stuart Lee
8	Edward Thomas: Edwardian War Poet	Dr Guy Cuthbertson takes an in-depth look at the poet Edward Thomas.	Guy Cuthbertson
9	Popular Poetry	Dr Stuart Lee discusses the popular poetry of the War years and the formation of the canon in...	Stuart Lee
10	‘On your lips my life is hung’: Robert Graves and War	Dr Charles Mundye takes a look at how Robert Graves' experiences and feelings about War that...	Charles Mundye
11	Poetry vs. History	What place do the poets and their work have in the historical analysis of the War? Dr Stuart Lee...	Stuart Lee
12	Georgians and Others	Dr Stuart Lee gives a short introduction to the poetry movements that led up to the War.	Stuart Lee
13	The Early Poets	Dr Alisa Miller looks at the popular poets in the early years of the War and the way that the...	Alisa Miller
14	Poetry of the Empire	World War One was a conflict of empire, not of nation. In this lecture Dr Simon Featherstone...	Simon Featherstone
15	Siegfried Sassoon	Meg Crane looks at the war poems of Siegfried Sassoon, framed by the first and last (non-war)...	Meg Crane
16	Wilfred Owen	Professor Jon Stallworthy, editor and biographer of Wilfred Owen, introduces one of the most...	Jon Stallworthy
17	Women Poets	Dr Jane Potter looks at a range of women poets who wrote during, and in the years that followed...	Jane Potter
18	War Poetry	Dr Mark Rawlinson explores the relationship between War and War Poetry using Owen's famous '...	Mark Rawlinson
19	From Owen's Doomed Youth, to his doomed youth	Lecture at the event 'Wilfred Owen: From Doomed Youth to the Battle of the Sambre'....	Jean Moorcroft Wilson
20	From Mametz Wood to The General	Lecture on Siegfried Sassoon given at the Imperial War Museum, London, 12th November 2011.	Jean Moorcroft Wilson
21	The Last Phase	A discussion on the last phase of the First World War. A talk given at 'Wilfred Owen: From...	Max Egremont
22	Anthem for Doomed Youth (readings)	by Owen, Wilfred (1893-1918) LibriVox volunteers bring you 12 different...

#	Essay Title	Description	Contributor
1	How Short Can a Short Poem Be?	One of the most celebrated Christian epigrams is this: ...	Julian Thompson
2	Sarah Howe - Artefacts of Writing	*In her exquisite first collection,...*	Peter D McDonald
3	Tracy K. Smith - Artefacts of Writing	We hold these truths to be...	Peter D McDonald
4	An Introduction to Teaching Wilfred Owen	Wilfred Owen has always been one of my favourite writers to teach, because his poetry is like a...	Lucy Freeland
5	Wilfred Owen: Resonances	Owen's enduring legacy comes in a variety of shapes and forms, from Benjamin Britten's War...	Brigitte Friant-Kessler
6	Owen's influence on Carol Ann Duffy	Carol Ann Duffy's poem "An Unseen" depicts a soldier going off to war, but we don't know which...	Marcy Tanter
7	"The Poetry is in the Pity": Wilfred Owen and the Memory of the First World War	A memorial to the poets of the First World War stands in the corner of Westminster Abbey....	Vincent Trott
8	4-11 November 1918: Wilfred Owen and armistice Day in Memory and History	In an early preface to his collected war poems, Wilfred Owen wrote of his work that "The subject...	Alex Nordlund
9	Wilfred Owen: The '60s Poet	With the centenary of the first Armistice Day - and the centenary of Wilfred Owen's death a week...	Harry Ricketts
10	Dulce et Decorum Est: Wilfred Owen’s Latin	Wilfred Owen fought hard to learn Latin. He was acutely aware of the importance of the classical...	Elizabeth Vandiver
11	At the Water’s Edge: Wilfred Owen and Water	By the look of the photograph reproduced in Jon Stallworthy's biography, it was a fairly run-of-...	Gerald Dawe
12	Postcard from the Front Lines of Teaching "Dulce et Decorum Est"	Wilfred Owen is the most famous of the World War One soldier-poets, and "Dulce et Decorum Est"...	Eleanor Mary Boudreau
13	SHEER: Setting Wilfred Owen to Music	"I can find no word to qualify my experiences except the word SHEER... It passed the...	Tim Watts
14	"Smile, Smile, Smile": Wilfred Owen and the Politicians	Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag And smile, smile, smile...	Douglas Kerr
15	Wilfred Owen and the Modern Elegy	Owen's elegies are characterised by his scepticism of the genre's consolatory power. Such...	Emma Suret
16	Reliving Wilfred Owen's 'Exposure' in Louis Simpson's World War II Poem 'The Battle'	Wilfred Owen’s legacy is often characterized by hallmarks such as his use of pararhyme or half-...	Michael Sarnowski
17	Wilfred Owen - biography	'My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.'	Stephanie Fishwick, Stuart Lee
18	Edward Thomas - biography	If the war goes on I believe I shall find myself a sort of Englishman, though neither poet...	Katharine Lindsay
19	Isaac Rosenberg - biography	Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918) was born in Bristol on 25th November 1890, the son of Barnett and...	Alisa Miller, Vivien Noakes
20	Ivor Guerney - biography	'Little did I dream, England, that you bore me / Under the Cotswold hills beside the water...	Stuart Lee
21	The Art of Mourning in First World War Poetry	The poetry written during the First World War was often created as an elegiac response to the...	Charlotte Barrett

#	Title	Description	Author
1	Two poems	The Lane and The Watchers London : Ingpen & Grant	Edward Thomas
2	Twenty poems	London : Sidgwick & Jackson	Rupert Brooke
3	"1914" : five sonnets	Contents: I. Peace -- II. Safety -- III. The dead -- IV. The dead -- V. The soldier. ...	Rupert Brooke
4	The complete poems of Rupert Brooke	London : Sidgwick & Jackson "First issue of the Complete Poems in this form,...	Rupert Brooke
5	The saga of the Seventh division	London, New York : Lane [1920]	Helen Emily Forbes
6	Poems	London : Gowans and Gray ; Boston : LeRoy Phillips (1921)	Oliphant Down
7	1914 & other poems	London : Sidgwick & Jackson (1915)	Rupert Brooke
8	Poetry in Context: The First World War Poetry Digital Archive (article)	Kate Lindsay and Stuart Lee describe how primary source material is enriching teaching and...	Stuart Lee, Katharine Lindsay

#	Resource Title	Description	Contributor
1	Portraits of Wilfred Owen	By Félicia Laude Acrylic paint and ink on dyed linen, 2018, 150 x 230 cm. ...	Félicia Laude
2	Kouni gnani yli yégé	By Nadia Ogou Batik, serigraphy and installation, 2018, 225 x 125 cm The artist's...	Nadia Ogou
3	Wilfred Owen plate from Poems (1920)	This is a plate from Wilfred Owen's 1920 Poems by Wilfred Owen, showing the author. The original...

#	Resource Title	Description	Contributor
1	Teaching materials by Lucy Freeland	A sample of teaching material used with a class of Yr 9 students studying First World War poetry...	Lucy Freeland
2	Slimescapes (article)	"If the First World War is described as the end of illusion for a whole generation of young men...	Santanu Das
3	Wilfred Owen: 'Futility'	Blog post + discussion about the Owen's poem 'Futility'. By Professor Tim Kendall on the War...	Tim Kendall
4	Mary Borden	Blog post + discussion about the writer, poet, nurse Mary Borden "one of the most extraordinary...	Tim Kendall
5	Gilbert Frankau	Blog post about the poet Gilbert Frankau. By Professor Tim Kendall + discussion on the War...	Tim Kendall
6	The Dying Kiss: Gender and Intimacy in the Trenches of World War I	Article by Santanu Das for the World War I Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings...	Santanu Das
7	Truth-telling versus literary allusion in David Jones’s ‘In Parenthesis’ (1937)	Article by Anna Johnson, part of the World War I Centenary: Continuations and Beginnings...	Anna Johnson
8	War Horse Poetry	Blog post by Professor Tim Kendall and discussion.	Tim Kendall
9	Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen	Blog post by Professor Tim Kendall and discussion. From the War Poetry blog.	Tim Kendall
10	Combat Gnosticism and the Woman Poets of the First World War	Blog post by Professor Tim Kendall and discussion from the War Poetry blog.	Tim Kendall
11	First World War timeline (interactive)	This interactive timeline, created as part of the First World War Poetry Digital Archive...
12	Edward Thomas's Birthday	Blog post and comments. Includes Thomas's poem, 'March the 3rd'.	Tim Kendall
13	Edward Thomas: 'In Memoriam [Easter 1915]'	Blog post and comments discussing the manuscript of Edward Thomas's 'In Memoriam [Easter 1915...	Tim Kendall
14	Wilfred Owen: The Man and His Poems	A short biography of Wilfred Owen, explaining the context in which his poetry was written.	Fleur Corfield

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