Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew

by Max Egremont

Max Egremont's Some Desperate Glory presents the story of World War I through the lives and words of its poets.

The hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of what many believed would be the war to end all wars is in 2014. And while World War I devastated Europe, it inspired profound poetry—words in which the atmosphere and landscape of battle are evoked perhaps more vividly than anywhere else.

The poets—many of whom were killed—show not only the war's tragedy but also the hopes and disappointments of a generation of men. In Some Desperate Glory , the historian and biographer Max Egremont gives us a transfiguring look at the life and work of this assemblage of poets. Wilfred Owen with his flaring genius; the intense, compassionate Siegfried Sassoon; the composer Ivor Gurney; Robert Graves, who would later spurn his war poems; the nature-loving Edward Thomas; the glamorous Fabian Socialist Rupert Brooke; and the shell-shocked Robert Nichols—all fought in the war, and their poetry is a bold act of creativity in the face of unprecedented destruction.

Some Desperate Glory includes a chronological anthology of the poets' works, telling the story of the war not only through the lives of these writers but also through their art. This unique volume unites the poetry and the history of the war—so often treated separately—granting readers the pride, strife, and sorrow of the individual soldier's experience coupled with a panoramic view of the war's toll on an entire nation.

Genres: Poetry, History, Nonfiction, World War I, War, Biography, Biography Memoir

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Anna P (whatIreallyRead) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some Desperate Glory was written in a format I haven't encountered before. It's a cross between a history book about WWI and a collection of WWI poetry. The poets included were exclusively the ones who were in active combat.

In the preface, Egremont sets the scene by describing the general sentiment in English society before the war, the background of each of the poets we'll follow, the attitudes, goals, and dissatisfaction resulting from their circumstances. The poets are a mixed batch: some were aristocrats, some from humble families, Jewish and Christian, known as poets already and completely obscure, gay and straight, with and without a family of their own.

Then there was a chapter for each year 1914-1918. Egremont describes in prose what happened in 1914 in the war and what happened to each poet individually: where they were, which battles they participated in, were they wounded, what they witnessed, how they felt, based on letters and diaries. Then, their poems written in 1914, where we see those experiences and attitudes reflected and blossoming. Then a historical chapter for 1915, then 1915 poems, and so forth.

Lastly, there's a historical chapter and section of poems called Aftermath. It deals with the fate of the poets from the WWI end until their death. Besides, it tells how the attitude toward the war and these poets and their poems changed over the following decades until the present day.

This was an incredibly powerful read. Fascinating, fulfilling, meaningful, moving. I'm not a huge reader of history books and usually avoid heavy subjects such as war, so it was a difficult read but well worth it. I loved it! The poetry, given with all its context, delivers such a punch!

The only reason I'm rating the book 4 stars is that I found Egremont's own writing quite convoluted and hard to get through. He sometimes covers multiple timelines and people in a single sentence, requiring parsing.

[archive ☄ · Rating 3 out of 5]

an excellent book! probably not the best primer for those looking to get into the war poets (i don't think i would have understood even half of it in a meaningful way if i hadn't already studied many of these writers in depth.) i'm giving it three stars because the narrative (if you could call it that) is strangely disjointed, although, in egremont's defense, he is tackling eleven poets at once! a feat to be admired, if nothing else.

anyway, i did like this book a lot, and especially appreciated the structure: it's divided into six sections, one for each year of the war (plus an aftermath), with the poems written in each year following their respective sections. it's fascinating to see the progression from early war romanticism (brooke, grenfell) to sassoon's rage to blunden and gurney's haunting verse in the decades following the armistice. i've never encountered a purely chronological arrangement like this before. certainly enlightening!

there were, of course, some other things that were not quite it:
🍊 not enough sorley but like. what else is new. the first half of the book is dominated by brooke and grenfell, who were objectively less innovative in their writing than sorley was; sorley was not only deeply sympathetic to the german cause but also divined the futility of the war as early as november 1914.... obviously he's worthy of at least some attention ?? idk. it's just deeply distressing to me that sorley is THIS assiduously ignored in war poet scholarship, and ESPECIALLY to see him shunted out by julian grenfell of all people. lord. it baffles the mind
🍊 ivor's mental illness once again being handled with the bare minimum of tact...... if i see one more scholar calling him "disturbed" (esp. during his pre-war ??? life ???) i WILL do something rash
🍊 this is small but. i would have liked to have seen french + german poets included in the mix. the title makes no allusion to the fact that this book is fully about the british writers of the war (not even the dominions are included) which is strange. this is the first world war the british poets knew. what of the war that the german poets knew? the french? the russian? how about the hungarian?? it's beyond the scope of this book (egremont had trouble juggling just the british) but it would be interesting to see in future scholarship nonetheless.

tldr; good book! not enough sorley!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some Desperate Glory – A wonderful mixture of Poetry & Explanation

During the Centenary Year remembering the start of the Great War in 1914 many books are being published in respect of the reasons for war, the first battles of the war and the great soldiers of the war. Many anthologies of the war poets are being brought out as yet another reminder of the war. Max Egremont has joined the canon of books being published about the Great War, but in Some Desperate Glory is different to the others and a very welcome addition.

This is a book of many parts which fits perfectly like a jigsaw where history, biography and poetry are not separated from each other but brought together in this volume. This is in part a biography of eleven war poets, placing some of their poetry in context of the war by using a timeline of events and including a short history of the military events of that particular year.

Historians today are always looking to illustrate their work on the Great War with not just the facts and interpretation but with the thoughts and feelings of the men at the front. So as well as using the military documents of the time and other primary sources the historian also interrogates letters and poetry one of the many ways in which we are able to express are feelings in a readable context.

What I enjoyed about Some Desperate Glory is that Ergemont is not attempting to dress up any of the facts whether it be war statistics or about the poets. One thing that is also very striking about the book is the change in the thinking and poetry from 1914 to that of 1918, when some of these poets were dead. He also shows that the war was breaking away from what had been a traditional war to one that was mechanised, became far harder and horrific.

The poetry highlights what Egremont explains to the reader what happened to the poet on the battlefield and what was happening in their military lives. This is a wonderful book an interesting account of the war that is accessible for any reader and one that can be read and reread and enjoyed every time.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My subject is War, and the pity of War." – Wilfred Owen

Some Desperate Glory is about "the feelings and vision of eleven fragile young men who were unlikely warriors" in the First World War – some still well-known like Owen, Sassoon, Edward Thomas, Robert Graves, Rupert Brooke; others mostly forgotten like Isaac Rosenberg, Edmund Blunden, Charles Sorley and Ivor Gurney (somehow the most tragic, which is saying a lot). Among the pile of recent weighty histories of WWI I've accumulated out of some obscure obligation, Egremont's book is a relatively swift read, suitable for a melancholy evening and afternoon.

Egremont is an expert, the author of Siegfried Sassoon: A Life. His book divides his treatment by the four years of the war. This is a logical choice, although as he moves from poet to poet the narrative can feel a bit pasted together, hopping from Thomas to Sassoon to Brooke to Graves to Blunden over the course of a page. Often I found myself resorting to Tim Kendall's excellent Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology, for Kendall's capsule biographies, trying to keep track of who was who. On the other hand, Egremont also provides a selection of poems from his poets for each year. This is brilliant: it carries the history to the heart. The poems feel fresh and shocking and sometimes sting with grief, especially when the poet has just died in the pages before. (And many of these poems aren't in Kendall's anthology.)

A book which covers so much so quickly can't help but scant the complexity of a poet's experience. This was especially apparent to me in the case of Thomas, after reading Matthew Hollis's Now All Roads Lead To France last year. Nor does it have the cumulative critical power of Paul Fussell's classic The Great War and Modern Memory, the book to which Egremont's will inevitably be compared. (Interestingly, Fussell is not mentioned at all.)

Still, there is much here to appreciate. I was surprised to hear sheer jubilation from poet after poet, how exhilarating the war was, how it had liberated them from the strictures of their own life. It's wasn't only the celebrated "patriots" like Brooke and Grenfell who rejoiced, but cynics like Sassoon, Graves and Owen. I was also intrigued by how many of these warrior poets were homo- or bisexual. Years after the war Robert Graves (who in his youth fell in love with one young man after another) remarked, "Owen and Sassoon were homosexuals, though Sassoon tried to think he wasn't. To them, seeing men killed was as horrible as if you or I had to see fields of corpses of women." Probably he was right. The same angry sentiment appeared before the next war in the writing of Auden and Isherwood.

The last chapter "Aftermath" is sharp. Writing of the death of Robert Graves in 1985, Egremont observes

By then, the poets' war was seen as the truth, judging by the flood of novels and films about it. This infuriated historians… Why, they asked, should what had ended in victory for the Allies be shown so often as a series of failed attacks from water-filled trenches across lunar landscapes threaded with barbed wire, in an atmosphere of dread, under the command of stupid, moustachioed, out-of-touch generals sheltering in châteaux miles to the rear? This, they claimed was the real myth.

Whether it's the real myth, I doubt, but Egremont is right about the "truth" and it's not just the British who pictured the war that way. I'm currently reading Gabriel Chevallier's Fear and Louis Barthas' Poilu: The World War I Notebooks of Corporal Louis Barthas, Barrelmaker, 1914-1918; and two graphic novels by Tardi – It Was the War of the Trenches and Goddamn This War! And today I just picked up Joe Sacco's astonishing unfolding The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme. I doubt any of these men believe that the Kaiser should have been permitted to conquer Europe, but the carnage, horror and stupid waste of that war remains its key modern memory.

[Rachel Louise Atkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enlightening book, focusing on eleven of the First World War poets and collectively telling their story year by year, and also adding a chapter on "Aftermath" to discuss the posthumous fame of some of the writers, and also the poems written by people who didn't experience the war.
Dispersed through-out is also a collection of the writer's most famous and important poems, making this a half-anthology-half-biography. This was nice, as you were able to link the work with what was happening to each soldier at each point in his life.
I enjoyed Egremont's work, and am excited to pick up his biography on Siegfried Sassoon.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough and compelling history of the Great War and biography of 11 of its poets. Also functions as an excellent anthology of Great War Poetry. Both the history and biography aspects are married seamlessly and progress very naturally, broken into sections by year. The poetry which accompanies each year of the war is a selection of the best, visceral, convincing, and tragic, but it also serves a highly demonstrative role to the authors prose which is unique and quite welcome. Overall, the book was expertly researched, written, and formatted. My only critique is that to those unfamiliar with the majority of war poets (as I was), keeping track of all the different personalities is extremely tedious and challenging. For the majority of the book, when presented with a poem by a certain poet(with thee exception of Edward Thomas, who is very memorable, and Owen and Sassoon and Graves, who are more or less household names), I was at a loss as to which name corresponded to which person as described in the book. At these points, I had to use Wikipedia. Still, an excellent book and a landmark accomplishment in war poetry analysis.

[Pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1914, the first year of the war, Rupert Brooke wrote, "Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour,/And caught our youth, and awakened us from sleeping,..." He died later that year on his way to the Dardanelles and is buried in Greece. And in 1918, the last year of the war, Wilfred Owen wrote, "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est/Pro patria mori." He was killed on the battlefield a few months later, a few months before the war ended.

Such sentiments are bookends for World War I. But that is also an oversimplification. In his very fine book, Some Desperate Glory: The First World War the Poets Knew," Egeremont shows, through their poetry, that the initial euphoria and surge of patriotism for the war and for England ended with disillusionment, war weariness, horror at the destruction and devastation that they witnessed on the battlefield, and a skepticism about the England they would be returning to (if they survived). But it's not all an emotional straight line. It's not all from a surge of jingoism or high patriotism to anti-war sentiments or pacifism. If Brooke had not died so early in the war, would his enthusiasm for it have lasted? There are some indications that it wouldn't have. And in one of Owen's last letters to his mother he wrote, "Have no anxiety. I cannot do a better thing or be in a righter place... ."

Egremont focuses on eleven poets who fought in the war and, with immediacy, recorded their feelings about their experiences. Some we still read, or at least remember, today - Owen, Sassoon, Brooke, Graves (although perhaps not for his poetry) - and others - Grenfell, Rosenberg, Sorley, Thomas, Nichols, Blunden, Gurney - have been lost to time. Their poems and their reputations have waxed and waned, depending upon the literary tastes of the day. Almost no one of them survived en tact. They died in battle or they returned to England and suffered nervous breakdowns. Today we would call it PTSD. Sassoon returned disillusioned, bitter, and eventually retreated from active society but ended up writing patriotic poems about WW II. In the horror of the trenches they wrote about, they also wrote loving memories of the English countryside.

Egremont organizes his book year-by-year (1914-1918), with brief biographic information on the poets followed by a selection of the poems they wrote that year. It is quite an effective way to present the poets, their poems, and an abbreviated account of the progress (or not) of the war. It is also sometimes difficult to keep the lesser known poets straight.

More than twice as many Brits were killed in WW I than in WW II and more poets seem to have gone to war and were killed in WW I than in almost any other of England's wars. Some of the leading literary lights of the time scorned the early enthusiasm of poets such as Brooke or thought the poets were "brave savages who enjoyed killing," but they didn't enlist, knew nothing of the battlefield firsthand. Others such as Kipling and John Buchan admired these poets and their poems. I think my reading of this book gave me a greater admiration for these poems (if not for the war) and a lesser one for the smugness of most of The Bloomsbury Group. One thing for sure, these poems mark a new realism in poetry. And leave us with a cautionary tale - we should not be so quick to induce young men and women to war with the old lie about how sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country. Of course almost no one believes this anymore.

[Manny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an outstanding book. On the surface it’s a collection of poetry from The First World War, but it’s more than that. It integrates the war history, the poet’s biographies, and organizes it in a year-by-year tracking of the poets and their published poems. We learn of their deaths on the battlefield for those that did not make it through the war. We learn of their families back home. We get a glimpse on their critical receptions and lasting reputations. The title of the book comes from the great Wilfred Owen poem, ““Dulce et Decorum est, ” which is arguably the finest of all the WWI poems. Of the eleven poets whose work are collected in the book, five survived the war. It only occurred to me recently that Egremont’s book is a book on British poets of the First World War. All eleven are British, and frankly I can’t think of any poets from any of the other countries that fought, even the United States, though it is incredulous to think there weren’t any poets other than British. I’m not even sure if the eleven poets constitute all the British poets who served. I can’t recall if Egremont ever gives his criteria for the selection. The six who were killed in action: Julian Grenfell, Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg, Charles Sorely, Edward Thomas, and Wilfred Owen, who died the week before Armistice. The five who survived the war: Robert Nichols, Siegfried Sassoon, Ivor Gurney, Edmund Blunden, and Robert Graves.

The only limitation to the book is that while it explores the lives and the poetry of the poets, and the history of the war, it doesn’t do any of the three fully. But then it would be a long and boring book. This was the right length and breadth for its objective. My compliments to Max Egremont for a thoroughly engaging work.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book, but not a great one. Much of that goodness, moreover, comes from the poets whose work is the heart of this volume.

Max Egremont has divided his chapters -- one for each year of the war and one for the aftermath -- into two parts. In the first he provides information on the experiences of each poet that year; in the second he lets the poets speak for themselves, with a selection of poems from the same year. Egremont does not stint on the poetry, with over 100 pages of poetry in 294 pages of text. This arrangement has the virtue of allowing the reader to see the changing attitudes of the poets as the war ground on.

And that's a good idea and quite interesting as far as it goes, but it seems that Egremont might have written a far better book if he had done more than simply provide information that supplied a narrative framework for the poetry. There is very little critical analysis or vision of any kind, and the two halves of each chapter, which in reality are linked by threads of experience, passion, and reflection, are little more than adjacent. Which is especially disappointing given the richness of the material and the possibilities it affords, as Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory shows. This book regrettably does not rise so high.

[G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best book for beginners, I don't think. Egremont pushes you in quickly, jumping from poet to poet in a couple of paragraphs (sometimes in one paragraph) and throwing in names and terms without clarifying who or what they are (count how many times he calls Rupert Brooke a Fabian socialist without explaining what a Fabian socialist is). I also thought the organization of his writing was a little wonky; 'Break of Day in the Trenches' is in the section for poems written in 1916, but Egremont doesn't explain its significance until the chapter supposedly dedicated to discussing 1917.

But for all that it's a smooth read, not overly dense, and the poem selection was near-perfect. Organizing the poetry by year means you can pick your favorite poet and follow him along from war's inception to end, watching his work change, darken, or else abruptly cut off altogether - if you've picked one of the several poets who didn't survive the war.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some Desperate Glory written in 2014 celebrates the one hundred year anniversary of the start of WWI by showcasing the work of the British poets who expressed their complex feelings about the war through their poetry. The author divides the book into the years of the war 1914-1918 and gives a brief overview of the war related events of the year along with a selection of the poems written during that year. I found the book to be interesting and poignant as the facts about the battles and trench warfare are juxtaposed with the often heart wrenching poems about the brutality of the war and the suffering of the soldiers as they endeavored to fulfill their obligation to their country.

[Beau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I tried reading "Guns of August," but I couldn't get a sense of emotional immediacy to the War. This book did the trick.

[J.D. Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry, particularly academic poetry, seems to be an exclusive and self-congratulatory club and has been for quite some time. It seems to be driven more on personality and credentials than literary merit; all about who went to what school, and sexual affairs, and vague notions of what is proper and best (the answer to both: We are!), and then all of that pettiness and triviality is blasted apart by a howitzer. This is the sense that Egremont captures in this history of the Great War, through a poetic lens.

I confess, I'm not part of the club. I don't understand most of the poetry I was made to study in English Lit. Maybe it's because I'm too American. Then again, I couldn't stand Dickinson or Whitman any more than I could Shelley or Wordsworth. The War Poets, though, suggest it may be the subject matter that bothers me, not poetry itself. I found I like Rosenberg, Owen, and Sassoon most, but have no complaint about Graves, Blunden, Gurney, or the rest. I'd have been interested to know what Brooke would have produced had he lived longer, and that in itself is a commentary all its own. I have Egremont and this book to thank for the ability to form these opinions.

I have two complaints. The organization by year makes it difficult to track each poet. If you're not careful, one can get confused with the other and you find yourself back tracking. Graves, now was he the one with the mental problems, the conscientious objector who found himself strangely drawn toward combat, or the one who doubled as a musician? On the other hand, the book is structured to serve the poetry, not necessarily the poets themselves, and the arrangement works toward that strength. Second complaint, in text one of the poets mentions how the Germans are more concerned with Byron's and Wilde's work, and not their affairs as the English are... then Egremont proves his British stripes with his inability to resist mentioning each poet's affairs. I may be myopic, but I fail to recognize the importance of precisely when Siegfried Sassoon lost his virginity, or why we needed Virginia Woolf's observations on Rupert Brooks' erection. On the whole, though, "Some Desperate Glory" does an excellent job of contextualizing the poets and the work they produced.

I was sad to see one of my favorite war poems was not included; an entry from Sassoon called "The Rear-Guard (Hindenburg Line, April 1917)". Even so, Sassoon and the rest have their cynicism, desperation, outrage, and fears on full display in this book. I am not sorry to have read it, and neither will you.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this would be a book I'd recommend to someone who hasn't read much about WW1. Either history or poetry. It is a good solid introduction to the poets and their poetry as well as contextualising it historically.

Egremont takes the WW1 one year at a time. Talk about where the poets are and their part in the war and then has a selection of poems from that year. It finishes with a chapter called 'Aftermath', which takes us through the post-war lives and reputations of the poets and poetry.

It does show how the type of poetry they wrote changed as the war went on. I think it convinces me that Owen, Rosenberg and Blunden might have written the best poetry from the war. And that the latter two don't get quite the praise they deserve. Graves comes across as something of an smug arsehole, which is disappointing. I had a real fascination with Graves as a teenager. Perhaps I need to revisit his work. Sassoon never quite recovered from the loss of Owen I think, but that might be over-reaching. Ivor Gurney alas was doomed to spend almost his entire post-war live in asylums. I recommend Michael Hurd's book about him if you want the full heart-breaking story. David Jones and In Parentheses get mentioned but Egremont - wisely I think - chooses not to wrench a chunk out of the poem for inclusion. There's lots of other poets mentioned.

So, yes. A good introduction if that's what you're looking for.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

After teaching and reading war poetry for two years, I find the lives of the poets, and the funny anecdotes (mostly about Rupert Brooke and his "party trick"), absolutely fascinating.

This is a very good book to find out information about World War poetry and the poets is detailed and easy to read and follow. I only picked up the book to find information on Rupert Brooke, Thomas Hardy and Wilfred Owen, but I ended up reading the entire book for context knowledge.

The only issue I had was there was not much information on Thomas Hardy or the Boer War, which would have good for more knowledge on the topic.

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

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A close examination of eleven soldiers who were poets - six who died, five who survived - whose poems really captures the time. Some Desperate Glory manages to give a fresh slant on these much reviewed but loved poems. An interesting book.

Alicia - The Book Grocer

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable and informative. There Wege many perspectives and much context that put the poems in a new light.

The history sections lacked organizations at times and the transitions were frequently lacking, making it difficult to notice which poet was being spoken of. The details were well chosen and helpfully presented.

The selection of poems was also quite good.

I would very much recommend this book.

[Catherine Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accidental water damage to this book due to rain in our tent last night, sorry dad. Really enjoyed the poetry, didn’t love the structure/format of the book. It felt choppy. I would have rather liked to read about each poet’s experience and then the poems they wrote one by one, not the entire war and all the poets and their poems year by year. I really loved “The Secret” by Robert Nichols

[AJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times the narrative seemed a disjointed and oddly organized selection of facts but the poems themselves and some details on the poets’ lives did make for a sobering look at the First World War through the verse of those who fought.

[Stacy LinDell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars = finished it, bit didn't like it.
Took me 18+ months to slog through this one. Not particularly engaging, although even though I'm a fan of biographies, learning about WWI, and a moderate fan of poetry, I'm probably not the target audience for this book.

[Shabbir Hamid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable. Captivating poetry. Great read. Highly suggest.

[Steven Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compelling, but bleak history of World War I through the writings of 11 poets who want to war.

[Rachel]

DNF. Better in concept than execution

[Julie Bozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at the Great War poets from yet another perspective - and it actually includes the poems as well.

[Estella · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the centenary of WWI, Max Egremont has given us a fine survey of WWI poets and poetry. More specifically, it covers British poets who actually participated in the war. "Some Desperate Glory" approaches the topic from several angles: history, biography, and the poetic works themselves.

The book is, essentially, arranged in six sections: one for each year of the war as well as one chapter covering the post war years. Each section contains biographical material about the poets, references to their part in the war, along with the poems mentioned. There are 80+ poems here - a healthy selection.

Since the material is presented chronologically, we get some sense of the growth and changes that marked out each artist's path. We get the bellicosity and confidence of the early years, the hopelessness of the interminable middle years, the relief of victory, and the many years of pondering that followed.

The book will be of most use to those whose primary interest has been in the military, political, and social history of WWI and who want to know more about the fighting British poets. Such readers will have a good framework in which to place the biographical and poetic elements to be found in this book.

While there is some historical context presented here, many readers would do well to pick up a general history of WWI or one that focuses on the daily lives of soldiers. The biographical information here is very interesting, but individual biographies would be more satisfying to some. Interested readers will also want to pick up additional collections that include poets of other nationalities (and viewpoints), WWI era poets who saw military action in prior wars, etc. There will be some overlap of course, but it will mostly be the cream of the crop - material worth revisiting multiple times.

I'm glad I took the time to read this book. I plan to revisit it. I've always struggled with poetry, but found this to be a palatable and interesting way to approach it. It was certainly a welcome bit of variety to add to my WWI studies.

I received this book at no cost through the Goodreads First Reads program.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthems for doomed youths

Part group biography of eleven important war poets, part history, part poetic anthology, this does an excellent job of placing the poetry of WW1 within its context. Egremont organises his material by year, so traces both the development of the war and the attitudes it engendered, while also placing the poetry into chronological order.

There are some stark facts that this book makes clear: for example, I never knew that more than twice as many British men were killed in WW1 as in WW2 – a shocking statistic, and one fundamental to the experience of the poets examined here.

At the same time, Egremont unpicks some of the myths of the poets: Wilfred Owen, for example, often used at the epitome of the tragedy of war, dying, as he did, a week before the armistice was declared, wrote in one of his last letters that there was nowhere else he’d rather be than at the front.

So whether you are deeply familiar with WW1 poetry or whether it might be new to you, this is a book which has something new to say.

(This review is from an ARC courtesy of the publisher)

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the date of publication reeks of riding the centennial wave Egremont does display an ardent fervor for the subject. At times the author tries a bit too hard to extrapolate what the subjects must have been feeling, but this does not detract from the work on the whole, if anything it just demonstrates the author's love of the subject. Organization of the work and the relatively small number of subjects makes for a nice linear discussion and comparative analysis. This is an excellent work for anyone interested in the poetry of the Great War, especially to the reader familiar with only one or two of the more prominent poets. It is a great companion work for any of the individuals biographies, but lacks the depth of a dedicated biography.

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may be better understood if you hail from Great Britain, and the beginning is somewhat of a steep learning curve for those not familiar with the poets being highlighted, but getting to the emotions of this war that certainly didn't end all wars makes it well worth the read. If you've read other histories of WWI then this will be an enjoyable addition, especially seeing the war through the eyes of poets, and realizing that war poets were quite the rage back then. I loved reading about the war chronologically and the poems also introduced by year. the two combine to show how Britons and Europeans in general changed their ideas of what the war meant and their ideas of patriotism as well.

[Rob Neyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting structure, as Egremont weaves in the doings of a number of British soldier-poets during the war, year by year; at the end of each chapter, a selection of poems published (or maybe written) during that year.

Alas, for me there were a couple of things that tripped me up. One, there are so many poets that I never really got into the narratives of their lives. And two, I didn't really enjoy the poems much, at least not until the postwar material.

In fairness, the book's well-written and the author obviously knows his stuff. But I can recommend only for specialists.