“We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields” – John McCrae.

World War One was a war that transformed forever the nature of war and modern society. The drawn-out ruthless and violent nature of the war called into question the old values of Europe. The various poets found in this anthology responded to the war in two ways: poets like Rupert Brooke and John McCrae saw the war as being part of a noble cause, while more famous poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon revealed the brutality of the war and challenged the idea that patriotism is noble virtue when means the sacrifice of thousand of innocent young men’s lives.

Poems like Owen’s “Dulce Et Decorum Est” are works often taught in English 101 courses. In the poem Owen depicts the brutal reality of soldiers “bent double” and “coughing like hags” with their backs to “haunting flares” only to find themselves fumbling desperately for gas masks as the unlucky ones drown in a sea of green to die “gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs obscene as cancer.” Anyway who saw such a sight would never tell “children ardent for some desperate glory, the old lie:” that its a good thing to die for your country. I’ve never forgotten this powerful poem since the first day I read it. The imagery is unforgettable and powerful. It is more horrific than anything you could possibly find in Edgar Allen Poe or Stephen King.

His other extremely famous poem, “Anthem for a Doomed Youth” translates the ceremonies of a funeral such as bells ringing for the dead and vigil candles into the language of war. The comforts of society do not exist on the battlefield.

Anthem of a Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- Only the monstruous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

As many of the poets show in their poems, the war is a dehumanizing experience where soldiers face bugs and lice, death and sickness, and “fear of fear.”

I really appreciate that this anthology allowed me to read more of Wilfred Owen’s poetry. After reading more samples of his work,  I now know I want to find a complete collection of his poems. In addition, I had never read any of Sassoon’s work who is considered to be the other major poet of the war period and whose works leans more towards a comical satire in comparison to Owen’s dark pessimistic and surreal grittiness. Even the various minor poets included were interesting, although one can easily that they are lesser in talent to some of the major names. In poetic figures like Rupert Brooke who had a more positive view of the war as a noble cause you see the hints of a budding talent in the included excerpts, particularly in his five-part sonnet cycle, The Soldier. Unfortunately he died during the war before he had time to grow and fulfill that unrealized potential. And perhaps the saddest part of this anthology is not even the poems themselves, but the biographical introductions for each author that shows how many of them died during the war they protested or supported.

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