2/20/2024 0 Comments War poetLaurence BinyonĪ successful poet before the war, Binyon was moved by the already-high number of casualties in 1914 to write For the Fallen. Poets praise the soldier’s might and deeds of War,Īfter the war, she became a passionate pacifist and feminist activist and, in 1933, published her memoir, Testament of Youth. She left to become a British Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse in France and Malta, where she experienced first-hand the devastation of war.īrittain wrote her experiences into a poetry collection, Verses of a VAD, describing how little recognition the women at the front received: As we use this day to look back at those lost, it's important to understand what caused one of the most devastating conflicts in modern history.Ī passionate writer, Vera Brittain was studying at Oxford University when war broke out in 1914. Hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 after four years of global conflict. The 11th of November marks Remembrance Day, a memorial day honoured since the end of the First World War. He even intervened when Sassoon was threatened with a court-martial in 1917.Īfter the war, Graves became a celebrated author, especially after the release of his historical novel I, Claudius. Graves met Siegfried Sassoon in Oxford while recovering from a shell wound to his lung, and the poets began an intimate friendship. He quickly gained a reputation as a war poet writing realistic poems about the front and published his first book of poetry, Over the Brazier, in 1916. The son of an Irish-Gaelic poet, Robert Graves left London – and a scholarship at Oxford University – in 1914 to serve as a junior officer in the war. ![]() Sassoon wrote over 100 anti-war poems before receiving a head wound and leaving active duty in 1918, going on to pursue a long career as a poet, novelist and lecturer. Instead, Sassoon was admitted to Craiglockhart for shell shock where he befriended Wilfred Owen. In 1917, he narrowly escaped a court-martial for writing a letter Finished with the War: A Soldier’s Declaration to his commanding officer condemning the war. Nonetheless, Sassoon was recognised several times for his bravery on the battlefield and was even nicknamed ‘Mad Jack’ for his courage. Siegfried Sassoonīorn to an aristocratic family in Kent, Sassoon was another leading poet during World War One, vividly describing the horrors of what he believed to be a jingoistic war fought for nationalist purposes. Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons 2. He was killed whilst leading men across a canal and his mother received news of his death on 11 November 1918, the day of the armistice. Owen returned to the front in 1918 despite his strong opposition to the war a recurring theme in his poetry. ![]() In 1917, he was sent to Craiglockhart Hospital in Scotland to recover from shell shock, and, at the encouragement of his friend Siegfried Sassoon, began to put his experiences down on paper.īefore the war’s end, he had written several of his best-known poems, including Dulce et decorum est, the title of which echoed the words of Roman poet Horace, meaning “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country”. Wilfred OwenĮnglish war poet Wilfred Owen is perhaps the most famous poet of World War One, despite only 5 of his poems being published during his lifetime. Of all the great poets from World War One, here are 10 of the most famous and influential. Yet soldiers were not the only voices heard in the poetry of World War One: frontline nurses, wartime motivators and established writers also turned to poetry to speak about the conflict. Faced with a brutal conflict fought in trenches, tanks and tunnels, soldiers during World War One used poetry to put into words the horrors they were facing. At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe was torn apart by a war unlike any before it.
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