Survivors' Songs: From Maldon to the Somme

242 Pages·2008·0.89 MB·English

by  Jon Stallworthy

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SURVIVORS’ SONGS
From Homer to Heaney, the voices of men and women have
seldombeenmorepiercing,morepoignant,thanintimeofconflict.
Forfiftyyears,JonStallworthyhasbeenattunedtosuchvoices.In
Survivors’Songsheexploresaseriesofpoeticencounterswithwar,
with essays on Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen,
and others. Beautifully written, this moving book sets the poetry
and prose of the First World War and its aftermath in the wider
context ofwriting about warfarefrom prehistoricTroy toAnglo-
Saxon England; from Agincourt to Flanders; from El Alamein to
Vietnam;fromthewarsofyesterdaytothewarsoftomorrow.
jon stallworthy is a poet and a Fellow of the British
Academy. Formerly Professor of English Literature at Wolfson
College, Oxford, he is the author of prize-winning biographies
of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice, the editor of Owen’s
Complete Poems and Fragments and of The Oxford Book of War
Poetry.Hehaspublishedmanyvolumesofpoems,worksofliterary
criticism,anthologiesofpoetry,andamemoir,SingingSchool:The
MakingofaPoet.

SURVIVORS’ SONGS
from Maldon to the Somme
JON STALLWORTHY
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521899062
©Jon Stallworthy 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part
may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2008
ISBN-13 978-0-511-45581-0 eBook (EBL)
ISBN-13 978-0-521-89906-2 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-72789-1 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
WITH A POPPY
for Macnair Jon Stallworthy
11 11 01
. . –
Whatwasitfor,
thatWartoEndWars?
Itwasforus.
Itwasforyouandyours.

Contents
Voice over page ix
Acknowledgements xi
1. Thedeathofthehero 1
2. Survivors’songs 18
3. England’sepic? 35
4. WhowasRupertBrooke? 42
5. Christandthesoldier 55
6. Owen’safterlife 68
7. Owenandhiseditors 81
8. ThelegacyoftheSomme 98
9. TheiconographyoftheWasteLand 109
10. Warandpeace 128
11. Thefirefromheaven 146
12. HenryReedandtheGreatGoodPlace 162
13. Thefuryandthemire 178
Notes 196
Index 213
vii