Perspectives on World War I Poetry

Description

Introducing students to the full range of critical approaches to the poetry of the period, Perspectives on World War I Poetry is an authoritative and accessible guide to the extraordinary variety of international poetic responses to the Great War of 1914–18. Each chapter covers one or more major poets, and guides the reader through close readings of poems from a full range of theoretical perspectives, including: Including the full text of each poem discussed and poetry from British, North American and Commonwealth writers, the book explores the work of such poets as: Thomas Hardy, A.E. Housman, Alys Fane Trotter, Eva Dobell, Charlotte Mew, John McCrae, Edward Thomas, Eleanor Farjeon, Margaret Sackville, Sara Teasdale, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Teresa Hooley, Isaac Rosenberg, Leon Gellert, Marian Allen, Vera Brittain, Margaret Postgate Cole, Wilfred Owen, E.E. Cummings and David Jones. Cover Half-Ttle Series Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Preface Also Available from Bloomsbury Introduction The Abrams scheme Literary theories: A brief overview Applying the theories: Carl Sandburg’s “Grass” 1 Thomas Hardy (1840–1928): “Channel firing”; “In time of ‘the breaking of nations’” A. E. Housman (1859–1936): A Shropshire Lad XXXV—“On the idle hill of summer” 2 Alys Fane Trotter (1863–1961): “The hospital visitor” Eva Dobell (1867–1973): “In a soldier’s hospital I: Pluck”; “In a soldier’s hospital II: Gramophone tunes” 3 Charlotte Mew (1869–1928): “May, 1915” James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938): “To America” John McCrae (1872–1918): “In Flanders fields” 4 Edward Thomas (1878–1917): “Tears”; “Rain” Eleanor Farjeon (1881–1965): “Now that you too must shortly go the way” 5 Margaret Sackville (1881–1963): “A memory” Sara Teasdale (1884–1933): “There will come soft rains” 6 Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967): “They”; “The rear-guard”; “The glory of women”; “Atrocities” 7 Rupert Brooke (1887–1915): “Nineteen fourteen: The soldier”; “Nineteen fourteen: The dead” Teresa Hooley (1888–1973): “A war film” Claude McKay (1889–1948): “The little peoples” 8 Isaac Rosenberg (1890–1918): “Break of day in the trenches”; “Louse hunting”; “Returning, we hear the larks” Leon Gellert (1892–1977): “A night attack”; “Anzac Cove” 9 Marian Allen (1892–1953): “The wind on the downs” Vera Brittain (1893–1970): “To my brother (In memory of July 1st, 1916)” Margaret Postgate Cole (1893–1980): “The veteran” 10 Wilfred Owen (1893–1918): “Anthem for doomed youth”; “Arms and the boy”; “Disabled”; “Dulce et Decorum Est”; “Futility”; “Stran 11 E. E. Cummings (1894–1962): “I sing of Olaf”; “My sweet old etcetera” David Jones (1895–1974): In Parenthesis (excerpt from Section VII) 12 The kinds of questions different critics ask Plato Aristotle Horace Longinus Traditional historical criticism Thematic criticism Formalism Psychoanalytic criticism Archetypal criticism Marxist criticism Feminist criticism Structuralist criticism Deconstructionism Reader-response criticism Dialogical criticism New historicism Multiculturalism Postmodernism Ecocriticism Darwinian criticism Works Cited Further Reading Permissins Index of Theories and Applications