The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War

This Companion offers a major re-examination of the poetry of the First World War at the start of the war's centennial commemoration.

Santanu Das (Edited by)

9781107692954, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 November 2013

346 pages, 15 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'Each title I have reviewed in the Cambridge Companions series offers a well-written and up-to-date analysis of its focus and once again this Companion meets the high standard of writing and intellectual engagement I expect.' Linda Kemp, Reference Reviews

The poetry of the First World War remains a singularly popular and powerful body of work. This Companion brings together leading scholars in the field to re-examine First World War poetry in English at the start of the centennial commemoration of the war. It offers historical and critical contexts, fresh readings of the important soldier-poets, and investigations of the war poetry of women and civilians, Georgians and Anglo-American modernists and of poetry from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the former British colonies. The volume explores the range and diversity of this body of work, its rich afterlife and the expanding horizons and reconfiguration of the term 'First World War Poetry'. Complete with a detailed chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion concludes with a conversation with three poets - Michael Longley, Andrew Motion and Jon Stallworthy - about why and how the war and its poetry continue to resonate with us.

Part I. Historical and Critical Contexts: Reconfiguring First World War poetry: an introduction Santanu Das
1. First World War poetry: a cultural landscape Vincent Sherry
2. Poetic form and the First World War Peter Howarth
Part II. 'Soldier-Poets': 3. Early poets of the First World War Elizabeth Vandiver
4. Later poets of the First World War Mark Rawlinson
5. Siegfried Sassoon Sarah Cole
6. Isaac Rosenberg Neil Corcoran
7. Wilfred Owen Sandra Gilbert
8. Edward Thomas and Ivor Gurney Edna Longley
9. David Jones Adrian Poole
Part III. Archipelagic, Commonwealth and Civilian Poetry: 10. Archipelagic poetry of the First World War David Goldie
11. Colonial poetry of the First World War Simon Featherstone
12. Women's poetry of the First World War Margaret Higonnet
13. Civilian war poetry: Hardy and Kipling Tim Kendall
14. First World War and modernist poetry: Pound and Eliot Christine Froula
Part IV. Afterlives of First World War Poetry: 15. 'But that is not new': poetic legacies of the First World War Jay Winter
16. A conversation: Michael Longley, Andrew Motion and Jon Stallworthy Santanu Das
Guide to further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]