Early Twentieth-Century Poetry

by Paul Driver

The years covered by this collection of poetry are some of the most turbulent in recent history.

Britain moved from wealth and stability to political turmoil as the First World War changed the world and claimed millions of young lives. The poetry in this volume follows the transition from rural tradition, embodied by Thomas Hardy and D. H. Lawrence, to a poignant realism expressed by the War Poets, Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.

Here, too, is the early magical poetry of W. B. Yeats nad the depiction of the life of a soldier of the Empire by Kipling; two poets who contrast strongly and yet fit happily into the age in which they wrote. Presenting the rich diversity of theme, style and technique, this antology amply represents the poetry of the early twentieth-century.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 1996

Reviews

[Larisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die" - Neutral Tones

"Down in the flood of remembrance, I wept like a child for the past" - Piano

I did like some of the poems, especially those written by Thomas Hardy or William Butler Yeats, but some of them weren't really my cup of tea.

[Zanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm just not keen on most of these poets. Yeats has the gift, but his politics put me off, while Thomas Hardy, much featured in this anthology, invariably brings out a literary allegic reaction in me.

[victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

brooke’s ‘the great lover’ carried this whole collection

[Dimitra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful little collection of poems, to read while drinking you hot tea/coffee during an autumn afternoon...
I really like Thomas Hardy's poems and I will definitely read more of his!

[Novelle Novels · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5 stars..
I’m so glad I’ve finally read this and there are some really good poems but I feel like the selection is limited in its authors and types of poems.

[Rashad Raoufi]

a wonderful compilation of the very best of poetry in early 21st century, the jewel in the crown has to wilfred owens ww1 poems and kipling and wb yeats.

[Georgia]

As expected, I liked at least the cadence and structure and syntax of the Yeats poems, and sometimes I enjoy his imagery regardless of content. I liked 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' and 'No Second Troy' particularly. I was taken with a bit of the imagery in 'Brown Penny' as well--it seems like 'Till the stars had run away/ And the shadows had eaten moon' should be featured as some kind of title.
I also liked Thomas Hardy's 'Neutral Tones' and 'The Voice', although I don't tend to like Hardy on a whole as I like Yeats. I think I like the imagery and themes of Romantic poetry, but I also like the sly, almost plodding progression of rhetoric in Enlightenment poetry. I do like explorations of love and relationships and human nature largely, and I have a sweetness for mythology, of course. That's largely why I liked Wilfred Owen's 'The Parable of the Old Man and the Young'--with the twist--because I don't tend to like war poetry or poetry about patriotism. I find it a bit dry.
I hadn't met Edward Thomas before this, but I quite liked 'Out in the Dark'.
So, in summary, I liked mostly the first thirteen or so pages of this book, which you would be able to tell especially in the first few pages by the abundant annotations. The odd one out was the Owen poem, which is in the section of largely war poems that occupies the latter third of the compilation, and I liked that mainly because of the twist it put on the mythology, and its use of religious parable to impugn the recipients of its moral lesson.