Tag Archives: World War I

June Is Short and We Must Joy in It

Irish poet Ledwidge’s “June” is a carpé diem poem that takes on special meaning given that the author died in World War I.

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A War Hero Who Derided Memorials

World War I poet Sassoon lambasts those who think that war memorials pay off the debt to those who gave their lives.

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Death Has Made Me Wise, Bitter, Strong

I honor Veterans Day with a Sassoon poem where a veteran remembers fallen comrades.

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How Novels Aided the World War I Effort

During World War I, librarians sought to supported wounded men with fiction. Some preferred love stories to action adventure fiction.

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Vets in WWI Documentary Do Not Age

Tuesday Last night Julia and I watched Peter Jackson’s extraordinary documentary about World War I in which he applied filmmaker’s magic to archival footage to create a sense of immediacy. By brightening dark shots and darkening overexposed ones, erasing scratches, evening out movement (World War I film was shot with hand-cranked cameras), turning long-shots into […]

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When Will We Ever Learn?

Alfred Noyes’s “On the Western Front” challenges us to learn from our wars.

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Wilfred Owen and the Hell of War

In “Mental Cases” Warren describes, as a nightmare, veterans suffering from PTSD and other war-related mental illnesses.

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Mourning the Mouthless Dead

Charles Hamilton Sorley, killed early in World War I, penned anti-war poetry that anticipated Wilfred Owen.

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Memorial Day: Anthem for Doomed Youth

With Memorial Day, there is the danger that we will romanticize the deaths of the fallen rather than face up to the full tragedy. This tension can be seen in a number of World War I poems, some of which romanticize the fallen while others dwell on the absurdity of their deaths.

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