The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War
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Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War The poetry of the First World War remains a singularly popular and powerful body of work. This Companion brings together leading scholars in the fi eld to re-examine First World War poetry in English at the start of the centennial commemoration of the war. It offers historical and critical contexts, fresh readings of the important soldier-poets and investigations of the war poetry of women and civilians, Georgians and Anglo-American modernists, and of poetry from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the former British colonies. The volume explores the range and richness of this body of work, its afterlife, and the recent expansion and reconfi guration of the canon of ‘First World War Poetry’. Complete with a detailed chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion concludes with a conversation with three poets – Michael Longley, Andrew Motion and Jon Stallworthy – about why and how the war and its poetry continue to resonate with us. Educated at Presidency College, Kolkata, and St. John’s College, Cambridge, Santanu Das is Reader in English at King’s College London. He is the author of Touch and Intimacy in First World War Literature (Cambridge, 2005) and the editor of Race, Empire and First World War Writing (Cambridge, 2011). He has published in journals such as Modernism/Modernity and Essays in Criticism and is completing a book entitled India, Empire and the First World War: Words, Images and Objects. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE POETRY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO THE POETRY OF THE FIRST WORLD WA R Edited by SANTANU DAS King’s College London © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York , NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107692954 © Cambridge University Press 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United States of America A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library . Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data The Cambridge companion to the poetry of the First World War / Santanu Das. pages cm. – (Cambridge companions to literature) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-01823-5 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-107-69295-4 (pbk.) 1. English poetry – 20th century – History and criticism. 2. World War, 1914–1918 – Great Britain – Literature and the war. 3. War poetry, English – History and criticism. 4. World War, 1914–1918 – Literature and the war. 5. War poetry – History and criticism. I. Das, Santanu. PR605.W65C36 2013 821′.91209358–dc23 2013017433 ISBN 978-1-107-01823-5 Hardback ISBN 978-1-107-69295-4 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information In Memoriam Paul Fussell (1924–2012) Dominic Hibberd (1941–2012) © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information CONTENTS List of Figures page xi Notes on Contributors xiii Preface xix Acknowledgements xxv Chronology of Events and Publications xxvii Chronology of Poets xli Part I Historical and Critical Contexts Reframing First World War Poetry: An Introduction 3 Santanu Das 1 First World War Poetry: A Cultural Landscape 35 Vincent Sherry 2 Poetic Form and the First World War 51 Peter Howarth Part II Soldier-Poets 3 Early Poets of the First World War 69 Elizabeth Vandiver 4 Later Poets of the First World War 81 Mark Rawlinson 5 Siegfried Sassoon 94 Sarah Cole 6 Isaac Rosenberg 105 Neil Corcoran ix © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information Contents 7 Wilfred Owen 117 Sandra M. Gilbert 8 Edward Thomas and Ivor Gurney 129 Edna Longley 9 David Jones 144 Adrian Poole Part III Archipelagic, Colonial and Civilian War Poetry 10 Archipelagic Poetry of the First World War 159 David Goldie 11 Colonial Poetry of the First World War 173 Simon Featherstone 12 Women’s Poetry of the First World War 185 Margaret R. Higonnet 13 Civilian War Poetry: Hardy and Kipling 198 Tim Kendall 14 War, Empire and Modernist Poetry, 1914–1922 210 Christine Froula Part IV Afterlives of First World War Poetry 15 ‘But that is not new’: Poetic Legacies of the First World War 229 Fran Brearton 16 Beyond Glory: First World War Poetry and Cultural Memory 242 Jay Winter War Poetry: A Conversation 257 Michael Longley, Andrew Motion and Jon Stallworthy Edited by Santanu Das Guide to Further Reading 269 Compiled by Santanu Das and Alice Kelly Index 281 x © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information FIGURES 1 Frontispiece to In Parenthesis . Estate of David Jones and National Museum of Wales. page xviii 2 The fi nal entry from the diary of A. Reid. Imperial War Museum (IWM), 87/8/1. 11 3 (a & b). Two pages from the diary of J. Bennett. IWM, 83/14/1. 12 4 Letter of Rosenberg containing the poem ‘In the Trenches’. IWM, Special Misc R5. 13 5 Manuscript version of Wilfred Owen, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’. Courtesy of the Wilfred Owen Estate and the British Library, London (Add. 43721.41). 15 6 Men of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment after the capture of Marfaux on 23 July 1918 during the battles of Marne. © Imperial War Museum (Q 6867). 18 7 Die Eltern by Käthe Kollwitz. Roggevelde German War Cemetery, Vladslo, Belgium. 24 8 An Indian, unable to write, is making a thumb impression on the pay sheet instead of signing for his pay. © Imperial War Museum (Q 12500). 27 9 VCOS and other ranks of 129th Baluchis take aim in the trenches on the outskirts of Wytschaete, Belgium. © Imperial War Museum (Q 56325). 29 10 David Jones, ‘Building the Ark’ from The Chester Play of the Deluge . Estate of David Jones. 154 11 Google N-gram of the word ‘gloire’ in French, 1900–1930. 246 12 Google N-gram of the word ‘glory’ in British English, 1900–1930. 246 13 Google N-gram of the word ‘gloire’ in French, 1900–2000. 246 14 Google N-gram of the word ‘glory’ in British English, 1900–2000. 246 15 The War Poets at the Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London. 252 xi © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01823-5 - The Cambridge Companion to: The Poetry of the First World War Edited by Santanu Das Frontmatter More information NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Fran Brearton is Professor of English at Queen’s University Belfast. Her books include The Great War in Irish Poetry (2000), Reading Michael Longley (2006) and, co-edited with Alan Gillis, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish Poetry (2012). Sarah Cole is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is the author of two books, At the Violet Hour: Modernism and Violence in England and Ireland (2012) and Modernism, Male Friendship, and the First World War (2003), and she has published articles in such journals as PMLA , Modernism/Modernity , ELH and Modern Fictions Studies , as well as in a variety of edited collections.