World War I Collection Spotlight - Poetry

As the Great War dragged on and its catastrophic death toll mounted, a new artistic movement found its feet in the United Kingdom. The Trench Poets, as they came to be called, were soldier-poets dispatching their verse from the front lines. Known for its rejection of war as a romantic or noble enterprise, and its plainspoken condemnation of the senseless bloodshed of war, Trench Poetry soon became one of the most significant literary moments of its...

The story of World War I, through the lives and words of its poets The hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of what many believed would be the war to end all wars is in 2014. And while World War I devastated Europe, it inspired profound poetry-words in which the atmosphere and landscape of battle are evoked perhaps more vividly than anywhere else. The poets-many of whom were killed-show not only the war's tragedy but also the hopes and disappointments...

The horrors of war and the pacifist sentiments expressed in Benjamin Britten's War requiem and the poems of Wilfred Owen are evoked in scenes and vignettes illustrating death and suffering in World War I.