First World War Poets

by Alan Judd, National Portrait Gallery, London, David Crane

Book by Judd, Alan, Crane, David

Genres: Poetry, World War I

63 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Alan Judd is a pseudonym used by Alan Edwin Petty.

Born in 1946, he graduated from Oxford University and served as a British Army officer in Northern Ireland during 'The Troubles', before later joining the Foreign Office; he currently works as a security analyst. He regularly contributes articles to a number of publications, including The Daily Telegraph, and The Spectator as its motoring correspondent. His books include both fiction and non-fiction titles, with his novels often drawing on his military background.

He lives in Sussex with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[☄ · Rating 3 out of 5]

a nice little stick-in-your-pocket volume addressing the better-known and the lesser-known of the war poets. predictably i loved the pieces dedicated to sorley and blunden (still thinking about the fact that sir edmund gosse apparently called blunden "a dear little chinchilla") but i was left a little cold by judd's treatment of ivor gurney. it seems to me that whenever ivor's mentioned in scholarship his achievements are completely overshadowed by his mental illness.... like. can this once – just ONCE – not be his sole defining trait as a poet? was absolutely baffled by this line (in reference to the portrait that accompanies the text): "there is something in this very unsoldierly image of him that inevitably foreshadows the mental breakdown to come..." like my guy WHERE are you seeing this inevitable foreshadowing ?? do your muscles ACHE from the stretch you just did there ?? it's literally the most innocuous picture ever like he's just sitting there chilling leave him alone 😭😭 so bizarre to me how such a talented poet is regularly and assiduously reduced to a single trait when his is possibly one of the most colorful and dynamic personalities to come out of the war... such a shame. he deserves better, to be perfectly frank !

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look at him, that guy in the book's cover. Inside the book, on page four, is a more complete copy of the photo. On top of it is a handwritten dedication which says: "Kind regards, Rosenberg 1917." Within months after this photo was taken at the London Art Studios the guy, Private Isaac Rosenberg, age 28, would be dead, killed in action during the last German offensive of 1918.

He was one of several poets who fought during the First World War. Some survived the war, many didn't but their poems did. The photos of those who didn't, printed in glossy, smooth paper, are quite haunting, especially when you look at them and see how young they were when their lives were wasted senselessly and how brilliant and promising they were.

Second Lieutenant Ford Maddox Ford, who survived, was the ugliest dude among the batch (IMHO, he he) while the handsomest was Sub-Lieutenant Rupert Brooke who didn't survive, killed in 1915, at 27.

[Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This gives a good overview of some of the war poets, with each getting a brief bio, photos, and one poem. I would have liked a longer volume that contained more poetry, but for just a glimpse of each poet's work, this does a decent job.

[Verity W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not really a poetry person, but the War Poets are the ones that i do like and where I can genuinely believe that the writers really did put in all those layers of meaning that teachers tell you about when you study them (like I did at A Level back in the day). This is a really lovelt little book from the National Portrait Gallery with short biographies of the key figures along with pictures of them from the NPG collection and one of their poems.

[Merle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book included short biographies of the most important (British) war poets. It also shows a picture and a poem of each, but I wasn't really able to bond with any of the poets.