Table Of Content
BRITISH AND IRISH
WAR POETRY
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BRITISH AND
IRISH WAR
POETRY
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Editedby
TIM KENDALL
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Acknowledgements
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IamgratefultoAndrewMcNeillie forhisunstinting supportduringthedevelop-
mentofthisbook.IhavealsoprofitedfromtheadviceandexpertiseofEvaNyika,
Tom Perridge, Jacqueline Baker, and Jean Van Altena. The contributors suffered
mycajolingemailswithgoodgrace.Myfinalandlargestdebtistomywife,Fiona.
TK
Theeditorandpublisheracknowledgepermissiontoreproducecopyrightmaterial
fromthefollowingsources:
‘MoreLight!MoreLight!,fromCOLLECTEDEARLIERPOEMSbyAnthonyHecht,
copyright1990byAnthonyE.Hecht.UsedbypermissionofAlfredA.Knopf,a
divisionofRandomHouse,Inc.,andCarcanetPressLtd.
John Balaban, ‘In Celebration of Spring’ from Locusts at the Edge of Summer:
New and Selected Poems. Copyright 1997 by John Balaban. Reprinted with the
permissionofCopperCanyonPress,www.coppercanyonpress.org
‘DeadSoldiers’,fromTheMemoryofWarandChildreninExile:Peom1968–1983.
Copyright1983byJamesFenton.ReprintedbypermissionofPFDonbehalfof
JamesFenton.
Robert Lowell, ‘Women, Children, Babies, Cows, Cats’ and ‘Fall 1961’, from
Collected Poems, ed. Frank Bidart and David Gewanter. Used by permission of
Farrar,StrausandGiroux.
Despite everyefforttotraceandcontactcopyrightholdersbeforepublication this
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Contents
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ListofContributors xi
Introduction 1
TimKendall
PART I BEGINNINGS
1. FightingTalk:VictorianWarPoetry 7
MatthewBevis
2. ‘Graverthings...braverthings’:Hardy’sWarPoetry 34
RalphPite
3. FromDarkDefiletoGethsemane:RudyardKipling’s
WarPoetry 51
DanielKarlin
PART II THE GREAT WAR
4. WarPoetryandtheRealmoftheSenses:Owenand
Rosenberg 73
SantanuDas
5. ‘ManySisterstoManyBrothers’:TheWomenPoetsof
theFirstWorldWar 100
StacyGillis
6. WilfredOwen 114
MarkRawlinson
7. ShakespeareandtheGreatWar 134
JohnLee
contents
8. WasthereaScottishWarLiterature?Scotland,Poetry,
andtheFirstWorldWar 153
DavidGoldie
9. WarPoetry,orthePoetryofWar?IsaacRosenberg,
DavidJones,IvorGurney 174
VivienNoakes
10. TheGreatWarandModernistPoetry 190
VincentSherry
11. AWarofFriendship:RobertGravesandSiegfried
Sassoon 208
FranBrearton
12. ‘Easter,1916’:Yeats’sFirstWorldWarPoem 227
MarjoriePerloff
PART III ENTRE DEUX GUERRES
13. ‘Whatthedawnwillbringtolight’:Credulityand
CommitmentintheIdeologicalConstructionof‘Spain’ 245
StanSmith
14. UnwritingtheGoodFight:W.H.Auden’s‘Spain1937’ 264
RainerEmig
15. War,Politics,andDisappearingPoetry:Auden,Yeats,
Empson 279
JohnLyon
PART IV THE SECOND WORLD WAR
16. ‘Othershavecomebeforeyou’:TheInfluenceofGreat
WarPoetryonSecondWorldWarPoets 299
DawnBellamy
17. ‘Death’sProletariat’:ScottishPoetsoftheSecond
WorldWar 315
RoderickWatson
contents
18. OccupyingNewTerritory:AlunLlywelyn-Williams
andWelsh-LanguagePoetryoftheSecondWorldWar 340
GerwynWiliams
19. TheMusethatFailed:PoetryandPatriotismduring
theSecondWorldWar 362
HelenGoethals
20. LouisMacNeice’sWar 377
PeterMcDonald
21. SidneyKeyesinHistoricalPerspective 398
GeoffreyHill
PART V CONTINUITIES IN MODERN
WAR POETRY
22. AnthologizingWar 421
HughHaughton
23. Women’sPoetryoftheFirstandSecondWorldWars 445
SimonFeatherstone
24. WarPastorals 461
EdnaLongley
25. ThePoetryofPain 483
SarahCole
26. ‘Downintheterracesbetweenthetargets’:Civilians 504
PeterRobinson
27. TheWarRemainsofKeithDouglasandTedHughes 524
CorneliaD.J.Pearsall
28. ‘ForIsaacRosenberg’:GeoffreyHill,MichaelLongley,
CathalO´ Searcaigh 542
TaraChristie
29. TheFuryandtheMire 564
JonStallworthy
