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Up the Line to Death: The War Poets 1914-1918: an anthology
Since its original publication over twenty years ago, this collection has established itself as a leading anthology of the poetry of the First World War. It includes poems by Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon and sixty-six others.
190 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1964
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December 30, 2011
Years ago, one of my teachers spoke of the importance of five minute books. His point being that no time needed to be wasted. Waiting for a bus, read the book you carried with you for that purpose. Waiting in the dentist or doctor, the same book. In a traffic jam, don't get angry and road ragey, open your little escape volume and slip into somewhere better. This i have done for years but ironically it had never been a huge habit of mine to have books in the smallest room in the house but over the last five years or so various volumes of poetry, largely anthologies seem to have found their way to my downstairs loo by a series of secret moves known only to my literary guardian angel. As a result I have encountered a number of short moments of revelation which serve to enhance an otherwise necessary literary dry time.
It was over the last seven or eight months that I have read this extraordinary collection of poems brought together by Brian Gardner and introduced with a short foreword by Edmund Blunden. And these poems do not take you to a better place but make you grateful for the courage of these men and sorrow for the waste of their sacrifice. In this collection the well known sit alongside the totally unknown, the brilliant and sparkling talents alongside the lost and wasted. It is an almost unbearable wading through the horror and tragedy of the 'Great War' expressed in hope, hell and humour in if not equal measure then certainly in notiecable presence.
Writers like Siegfried Sassoon, Maurice Baring, Laurence Binyon, EE Cummings, Rupert Brook and Wilfred Owen who are well known and recognized literary figures even if , with a number of them, they did not outlast the war, are drawn together with far lesser known and, to me at least in many cases, quite unknown poets. This lack of knowledge is one of the stark sadnesses. Some of the poetry of the unknown men seems mere doggerel against some of the towering creations of others but a sad realization is the one whereby you recognize that perhaps what lay trampled and blown to bits in the trenches were their immature poetic minds. What might have been brought out on the page by some of these men had they survived the terror and brutal destruction? This we will never know and that perhaps is one of the most striking images for me. One minor gripe is the fact that all the poets are from the side of the allies. Maybe this is inevitable given when the collection was first made in 1964 but i wonder whether poets from Imperial Germany or their allies should not be included so as to really show the similarity of feeling rather than perpetuating the lie of difference.
Two poets of whom I knew nothing leapt out from the page. Isaac Rosenberg, of whom more in another book review to be posted, and Charles Sorley. Rosenberg killed April 1st 1918 and Sorley killed on October 13th 1915. Two wasted young poets who wrote beautiful verse but what might they have achieved had they lived. These young men stand as symbols of the wasted talent and unfulfilled lives of not just poets but scientists or sportsmen or fathers or gardners or teachers or bakers or well obviously I could go on. Brilliant collection but made all the more moving by virtue of the expressions or images or word paintings that were never seen or read or heard because they were blown to bits in the war to end all wars. Oh yeah and Gardner brought out an anthology of the next war as well. You know the one that obviously didn't really happen.
It was over the last seven or eight months that I have read this extraordinary collection of poems brought together by Brian Gardner and introduced with a short foreword by Edmund Blunden. And these poems do not take you to a better place but make you grateful for the courage of these men and sorrow for the waste of their sacrifice. In this collection the well known sit alongside the totally unknown, the brilliant and sparkling talents alongside the lost and wasted. It is an almost unbearable wading through the horror and tragedy of the 'Great War' expressed in hope, hell and humour in if not equal measure then certainly in notiecable presence.
Writers like Siegfried Sassoon, Maurice Baring, Laurence Binyon, EE Cummings, Rupert Brook and Wilfred Owen who are well known and recognized literary figures even if , with a number of them, they did not outlast the war, are drawn together with far lesser known and, to me at least in many cases, quite unknown poets. This lack of knowledge is one of the stark sadnesses. Some of the poetry of the unknown men seems mere doggerel against some of the towering creations of others but a sad realization is the one whereby you recognize that perhaps what lay trampled and blown to bits in the trenches were their immature poetic minds. What might have been brought out on the page by some of these men had they survived the terror and brutal destruction? This we will never know and that perhaps is one of the most striking images for me. One minor gripe is the fact that all the poets are from the side of the allies. Maybe this is inevitable given when the collection was first made in 1964 but i wonder whether poets from Imperial Germany or their allies should not be included so as to really show the similarity of feeling rather than perpetuating the lie of difference.
Two poets of whom I knew nothing leapt out from the page. Isaac Rosenberg, of whom more in another book review to be posted, and Charles Sorley. Rosenberg killed April 1st 1918 and Sorley killed on October 13th 1915. Two wasted young poets who wrote beautiful verse but what might they have achieved had they lived. These young men stand as symbols of the wasted talent and unfulfilled lives of not just poets but scientists or sportsmen or fathers or gardners or teachers or bakers or well obviously I could go on. Brilliant collection but made all the more moving by virtue of the expressions or images or word paintings that were never seen or read or heard because they were blown to bits in the war to end all wars. Oh yeah and Gardner brought out an anthology of the next war as well. You know the one that obviously didn't really happen.
April 29, 2018
Collection of devastating poems written mostly by the people who were there, most of whom died during WWI.
An anthology of poems are not necessarily read straight through and I kept these where I could pick it up for a stray moment here or there. Many of these poets were not well known. Although the collection certainly included Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves.
I appear to have flagged only one poem, Rendezvous by Alan Seeger.
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade
An anthology of poems are not necessarily read straight through and I kept these where I could pick it up for a stray moment here or there. Many of these poets were not well known. Although the collection certainly included Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves.
I appear to have flagged only one poem, Rendezvous by Alan Seeger.
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade
December 10, 2020
A stunning, yet poignantly painful anthology of poems.
Studying and analysing them really brings to light the meanings behind them; the atrocities faced by soldiers in World War 1 should not be as underplayed as they often are in our modern society - this highlighted particularly through the final poem in the epilogue, 'High Wood'.
This is an important collection which I believe everybody should read at least once - very thought provoking and notable even in the 21st century.
Studying and analysing them really brings to light the meanings behind them; the atrocities faced by soldiers in World War 1 should not be as underplayed as they often are in our modern society - this highlighted particularly through the final poem in the epilogue, 'High Wood'.
This is an important collection which I believe everybody should read at least once - very thought provoking and notable even in the 21st century.
February 25, 2023
I wanted to post a short review because while I have perhaps a dozen collections/compilations of poetry from and or about the Great War, aka World War One, this is my favorite and the jacket blurbs suggest I'm in good company. The poetry written by the soldier poets of that war and by the 'war' poets on the Home Front does in fact range from the doggerel to some of the best verse ever written. Including both in a collection is legitimate as it reflects the voices expressing their reactions, responses, and experiences of that war. But somehow, editor Brian Gardner has included both my favorites and some poems new to me in this 1964 anthology.
October 15, 2015
My dad picked this up from one of the shelves in a local charity shop for close to a pound. Imagine that! A shop so willing to get ripped off. The poems in this collection were beautiful, and gave me an immense shock of empathy on almost every line. The poems are organised in a wonderful order, and seem to increase in complexity the more you go along them.
The complexity bit we'll leave out; it might just be my personal preference to read Wilfred Owen as slowly as possible - he's so rich with his words.
The complexity bit we'll leave out; it might just be my personal preference to read Wilfred Owen as slowly as possible - he's so rich with his words.
December 15, 2016
Great resource for WW1 poetry because it includes really obscure poetry that is nearly impossible to find anywhere else. A very valuable collection, organized by theme/chronology, and the biographies of the poets are also very useful considering that some of them are fairly unknown.
Would not recommend if you're looking for the most famous, canonical pieces. Some very well-known poems are here (Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth," for example), but you're better off looking at a more mainstream WW1 poetry anthology for those.
Would not recommend if you're looking for the most famous, canonical pieces. Some very well-known poems are here (Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth," for example), but you're better off looking at a more mainstream WW1 poetry anthology for those.
December 8, 2016
Read Sassoon, Owen, and Brooke from this for GCSE and it made such a deep impact that I became a pacifist. Harrowing images of war (Exposure), death (The Sentry), suffering (Dulce et Decorum est), madness (Mad), and the afterlife (Strange Meeting) contrast with mockery (The General), anger (In Flanders Field), and bon hommie (Tipperary Days). Recommended for everyone.
May 21, 2021
The poetry from the First World War is amongst the most profound ever produced in English, so with any anthology you are bound to get a strong showing. Up the Line to Death is strong, with the mix of mainstays in the genre (Owen, Sassoon, McCrae, etc.) and some lesser-known pieces. The collection is not comprehensive and, surprisingly, Gardner admits in his introduction that some well-known poems were deliberately omitted to make the collection a 'publishing proposition' at the time (pg. xxv). This might have swayed the publishers in 1964 but it does damage the collection in posterity.
Maybe I've been spoiled, because my first sustained exposure to war poetry was in Hibberd and Onions' The Winter of the World, a comprehensive collection of First World War poetry which also managed to arrange things with a readable flow and provide unobstructive biographical context. But Gardner's older collection holds, and the uncomfortable truth of war poetry will likely never wane. There are probably many reasons for our continued fascination; Gardner's introduction speculates on some of them, including the immediacy of the lines from poets who didn't know if they would live long enough to write revisions, its own incomprehensibility to us in a peaceful time and our futile attempts to understand such horror, and the admiration for gentle men who, though they despised the war, could find the nobility of man in their war (pg. xx).
Personally, I think it is because, as Gardner writes, "the journey from Laurence Binyon's 'The Fourth of August' to Philip Johnstone's 'High Wood' was a long a terrible one" (pg. xxv) – there was a profound and violent shift in such a condensed period of time, from the happy patriotism of the summer of 1914 to the grey and wearied disillusionment of 1918's armistice. Such a seismic shift is always likely to fascinate us, particularly as one might pinpoint 1914-18 as the years when the Western world's back was broken, its leaping ascendency arrested. Whatever the reason, or whatever the correct hierarchy of the multiple reasons, one cannot help but read poetry of such grief and pain and disillusionment and vow never to forget, never to "misremember what once they learnt with pain" (Edward Shanks, 'The Old Soldiers', pg. 16). One reads the flawless 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and vows never to repeat the 'old Lie' that Wilfred Owen died to tell us about, just a week shy of the armistice.
Maybe I've been spoiled, because my first sustained exposure to war poetry was in Hibberd and Onions' The Winter of the World, a comprehensive collection of First World War poetry which also managed to arrange things with a readable flow and provide unobstructive biographical context. But Gardner's older collection holds, and the uncomfortable truth of war poetry will likely never wane. There are probably many reasons for our continued fascination; Gardner's introduction speculates on some of them, including the immediacy of the lines from poets who didn't know if they would live long enough to write revisions, its own incomprehensibility to us in a peaceful time and our futile attempts to understand such horror, and the admiration for gentle men who, though they despised the war, could find the nobility of man in their war (pg. xx).
Personally, I think it is because, as Gardner writes, "the journey from Laurence Binyon's 'The Fourth of August' to Philip Johnstone's 'High Wood' was a long a terrible one" (pg. xxv) – there was a profound and violent shift in such a condensed period of time, from the happy patriotism of the summer of 1914 to the grey and wearied disillusionment of 1918's armistice. Such a seismic shift is always likely to fascinate us, particularly as one might pinpoint 1914-18 as the years when the Western world's back was broken, its leaping ascendency arrested. Whatever the reason, or whatever the correct hierarchy of the multiple reasons, one cannot help but read poetry of such grief and pain and disillusionment and vow never to forget, never to "misremember what once they learnt with pain" (Edward Shanks, 'The Old Soldiers', pg. 16). One reads the flawless 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and vows never to repeat the 'old Lie' that Wilfred Owen died to tell us about, just a week shy of the armistice.
July 2, 2019
Studied this as part of my English A Level- a dark, insightful revelation of the traumatic experiences of those who fought in the First World War. Everyone should read this anthology in order to appreciate the sacrifices of the soldiers.
November 15, 2024
Will be reviewing it tomorrow for my BookTube channel. Have been working through info on poets. And stats. You know you're getting old though when 11 of the poets in a World War One poetry anthology were still alive when you were born.
August 26, 2018
Fantastic compilation of poems, covers a range of perspectives and attitudes towards the War . Particularly enjoyed the introductory note by Brian Gardener.
April 15, 2021
" Do you ever stop and ask, 'Is it all going to happen again?' "
January 14, 2022
Kinda repetitive but really interesting
September 10, 2024
Was a beautiful moving read
November 22, 2024
Great poetry anthology, made my heart sing.
July 29, 2025
Powerful. This should be required reading for students.
June 12, 2020
This book is effective precisely because it isn't the standard modern selection (Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon) telling us what we're supposed to think about 'the War Poets' at a GCSE level of complexity; it's a compilation of what was actually written at the time, sent home on the back of letters, published in the newspapers, or found after death in uniform pockets. As the foreword puts it, it is largely a collection of lesser-known pieces, some of which are very good, most of which are good, and some of which are mediocre but poignant in their immediacy.
Most of the soldiers writing poetry, of course, were educated men, which means that most of them were among the young officers, which means that most of them died. The end of the book consists of a potted biography of each of the contributors, some of whom survived the war and went on to publish professionally, but many of whom went on to other careers and so far as I know were never stirred to verse again. Those who were killed are marked with an asterisk, but their biographies are rarely any shorter.
Considered as an anthology it is beautifully arranged, being divided into sections that are not quite chronological and not quite themed but which represent the different phases and stages of reactions to the war, and each of which is introduced by a snatch of popular song. The progress through from Tipperary Days to To Unknown Lands to Death's Kingdom, Home Front, Behind the Lines (among others) and O Jesus, Make it Stop to At Last, at Last! constitutes in itself a history of the conflict, without commentary. And the views given, being expressed without hindsight or even necessarily intent of publication, are not always the ones we would expect: Rupert Brooke was not the only one to view the society of 1914 as corrupt, decadent and dreary, from which a short sharp shock of war might draw out better things "as swimmers into cleanness leaping... from a world grown old and cold and weary". And even in the worst of the trench warfare there are poems from men celebrating fellowship within Hell or wildflowers in billets behind the line.
There are poems here from men whom one knows, but not in this context (who could imagine A.A.Milne as a 'war poet'? Or ee cummings? Or Robert Graves of "I, Claudius" fame? Or the Victorian Thomas Hardy?) as well as from men of whom one has never heard, or poems that are unfamiliar from people like Sassoon or Sir Henry Newbolt (hard to imagine the author of "Drake's Drum" watching cinema footage of the Battle of the Somme). There are poems from the campaigns in Africa and Mesopotamia -- where my own great-grandfather served, and fortunately for me survived, but which compared to Gallipoli is completely forgotten. And unlike most poetry anthologies, the final entries tend to have the writer's time and manner of death appended -- one can follow a man through the themed sections, come to recognise his style, and then abruptly be confronted by the fact that he died three days later.
Most of the soldiers writing poetry, of course, were educated men, which means that most of them were among the young officers, which means that most of them died. The end of the book consists of a potted biography of each of the contributors, some of whom survived the war and went on to publish professionally, but many of whom went on to other careers and so far as I know were never stirred to verse again. Those who were killed are marked with an asterisk, but their biographies are rarely any shorter.
Considered as an anthology it is beautifully arranged, being divided into sections that are not quite chronological and not quite themed but which represent the different phases and stages of reactions to the war, and each of which is introduced by a snatch of popular song. The progress through from Tipperary Days to To Unknown Lands to Death's Kingdom, Home Front, Behind the Lines (among others) and O Jesus, Make it Stop to At Last, at Last! constitutes in itself a history of the conflict, without commentary. And the views given, being expressed without hindsight or even necessarily intent of publication, are not always the ones we would expect: Rupert Brooke was not the only one to view the society of 1914 as corrupt, decadent and dreary, from which a short sharp shock of war might draw out better things "as swimmers into cleanness leaping... from a world grown old and cold and weary". And even in the worst of the trench warfare there are poems from men celebrating fellowship within Hell or wildflowers in billets behind the line.
There are poems here from men whom one knows, but not in this context (who could imagine A.A.Milne as a 'war poet'? Or ee cummings? Or Robert Graves of "I, Claudius" fame? Or the Victorian Thomas Hardy?) as well as from men of whom one has never heard, or poems that are unfamiliar from people like Sassoon or Sir Henry Newbolt (hard to imagine the author of "Drake's Drum" watching cinema footage of the Battle of the Somme). There are poems from the campaigns in Africa and Mesopotamia -- where my own great-grandfather served, and fortunately for me survived, but which compared to Gallipoli is completely forgotten. And unlike most poetry anthologies, the final entries tend to have the writer's time and manner of death appended -- one can follow a man through the themed sections, come to recognise his style, and then abruptly be confronted by the fact that he died three days later.
March 15, 2012
Up the line to death is an anthology of all the war poets from 1914-1918 compiled by Brian Gardner, which is understandibly well estabilshed and cherished by many. The famous Kipling, Brooke, Sassoon, Blunden, Owen and Graves are all included as well as many others who sadly are almost entirely forgotten who were killed in action. As a reader you can only gain a clear picture of this significant moment within history through real life and truthful acounts, that are precise and clear and which do not gloss over any detail. One is transported back to the trenches, encountering those poinant images of battle and the actual feelings expressed by the soldiers & soldier poets who lived and died through trench warfare. Nothing is overlooked; from the mud, rats and delapidation of the trenches, with the hellish noise of bombardment, the insane waste of life, the high heroism and the bitter cynisism. The writing is beautifully captivating and emotive that which covers all aspects of human emotion from the satirical, laughable mockery of war to the inhumane realities of the battlefield, it covers all spectrums of nievity to stark realism and comprehension. The poets take the reader on a journey of discovery and understanding of war with both skill and descrimination, that which will leave you emotionally drained as it is so utterly moving and powerful. Having to study this anthology within my English Studies i found myself to be so apreciative of it, as these poems helped me to gain an insight into the first World War that i would certainly not have had without it and it also helped me to paint a very clear & vivid picture of this horrific, once in a lifetime event that should never be overlooked, forgotten or thought of with disinterest. It is a moment within history that should be regarded with much respect, dignity and understanding. To those whom are ignorant or pose to be nieve on the Great War, then i would recomend that you read a poem from this anthology by Wilfred Owen (who was killed in action in 1918) called "Dulce et decorum est" which translated means 'it is a sweet and fitting thing to die for ones country' now, think about that...
July 6, 2016
I can't say that I've properly read this, since we analyse random poems from it throughout the book, yet I've read enough to get an overall idea for this anthology and to be honest it was bothering me that it was on my currently reading shelf when it wasn't exactly being read, more like being glanced at every Tuesday and Friday during class.
Despite this, I can definitely appreciate the poems in here. I'm not a huge fan of long poems (of which there are a few), and obviously you're not going to like every single poem, but some really stand out for me and encapsulate the feeling of war and create such a realistic surrounding. Also, the gradual progression of patriotism to stoicism, to general criticism of the war is interesting as it portrays how blinded we were as a nation. I think reading this with the 21st Century hindsight we possess creates a huge irony in which Gardner attempts to further this with his choice of poems.
I find World War One literature, whether written as revisionist literature or from the time period itself the most easy out of any themes of writing to analyse, since there is so much factual information to relate it to, and the impact it had on the entire nation and the world itself.
Despite this, I can definitely appreciate the poems in here. I'm not a huge fan of long poems (of which there are a few), and obviously you're not going to like every single poem, but some really stand out for me and encapsulate the feeling of war and create such a realistic surrounding. Also, the gradual progression of patriotism to stoicism, to general criticism of the war is interesting as it portrays how blinded we were as a nation. I think reading this with the 21st Century hindsight we possess creates a huge irony in which Gardner attempts to further this with his choice of poems.
I find World War One literature, whether written as revisionist literature or from the time period itself the most easy out of any themes of writing to analyse, since there is so much factual information to relate it to, and the impact it had on the entire nation and the world itself.
April 6, 2014
I read this collection while i was studying my A-levels. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the poetry though we focused mainly on Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, but overall studied 50 poems from the collection. I found it both moving and inspiring how these men managed to cope in such horrific conditions. I felt reading these poems has given me a greater understanding and appreciation for what they did for us in WW1, and although these poems are both graphic and emotionally moving, it is a collection of poems I think people should read to give both historic appreciation and understanding and to be able to appreciate their literary ability and how WW1 has benefited out society as without WW1 to a point psychological therapy would not have happened for quite a while which is highlighted in these poems as well as how our society changed during that period, particularly about the war.
March 24, 2015
Now this was a good collection of poetry! I enjoyed the majority of poems within this text and loved studying it through A-level. We mainly focused around the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, but overall studied 50 poems from the collection.
The poems themselves were both graphic and emotionally moving. They read beautifully and each was unique. I loved the variety between them and the descriptions of what life was like in the trenches.
The only negative point to this was that there were a few of the poems within the collection that I felt didn't match up in quality to the rest. It would have been better, in my opinion, to leave them out and have a smaller set of amazing poems.
The poems themselves were both graphic and emotionally moving. They read beautifully and each was unique. I loved the variety between them and the descriptions of what life was like in the trenches.
The only negative point to this was that there were a few of the poems within the collection that I felt didn't match up in quality to the rest. It would have been better, in my opinion, to leave them out and have a smaller set of amazing poems.
February 9, 2012
A brilliant collection of poems, this particular book brought me into contact with fantastic poems that I might not otherwise have come across. It serves to remind us that Owen, Sassoon and the rest of the famous poets of the First World War were not the only talented young men of their generation, and to read some of the lesser-known poems is to be inspired to record the world around us, both the good times and the bad, through writing poetry.
August 13, 2021
This anthology was set as a core piece of reading when I was doing my Literature A Level and I was instantly captivated. A variety of poetry from many soldiers on the frontlines of battle; terrifying, heartbreaking, and insightful.
My favourites will always be: Dulce Et Decorum Est, Soliloquy, In The Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’, After the Salvo, Exposure, and The Sentry.
My favourites will always be: Dulce Et Decorum Est, Soliloquy, In The Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations’, After the Salvo, Exposure, and The Sentry.
October 30, 2011
I love poetry but I have to admit war poetry isn't my favourite. It's a nicely put together collection of poems in order of time written. There are a few gems in there that are infamous and brilliantly written. I am not too keen on war poetry which is why I gave it just 3 stars.
February 28, 2019
A beautiful selection of poems, with a thoughtfully chosen preface and epilogue. I especially love how the poems have been grouped to tell the tale of changing views on the war as the anthology progresses.
Overall a very emotive, thought-provoking anthology.
Overall a very emotive, thought-provoking anthology.
March 6, 2014
A very good range starting from the beginning of the First World War to the end
April 27, 2015
Excellent anthology, although I don't think Edmund Blunden would have merited so many entries (8) if he hadn't wrote a foreword.
May 2, 2016
I struggle a little bit with this type of poetry ... But respect those who wrote it very much ... I am interested in Siegfried Sassoon ... Buried at Mells ...
August 28, 2016
This is an excellent section of WW1 poetry.
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