War Poetry in the media

  

Main Index

First World War
poets and poetry

Minds at War
The classic poems of First World War, popular poems of the time, lesser known poets and a wealth of background material.

Illustrations include contemporary photographs.



Out in the Dark
Anthology of First World War poetry recommended for students and the general reader.

Illustrations include contemporary photographs.

Poetry about the Second World War

To top of page

Contact us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
2008

War Poetry in the media


Newspapers, radio, music, TV
Still available!
The Guardian ran a series on the First World War which started on Saturday 8 November and ran for a week. The Observer of 9 November  also carried one of the series. It is by a large team of journalists and authorities. The editor described it as "a highly collectable, seven-day series of 32-page, full-colour booklets to give readers a unique "eyewitness" history of the war, with an extraordinary array of extracts from writers and poets including Ernest Hemingway, DH Lawrence, HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Winston Churchill and many more."

There was also be a selection of war photography and paintings each day, plus an introductory essay from a contemporary expert on the war.

The series ended on Saturday 15 Nov with a free giant propaganda poster featuring Lord Kitchener's original artwork.  See below for a glimpse of the material.

To  buy the series go to www.guardian.co.uk/readeroffers/firstworldwar

The Sunday Times Magazine carried an excellent feature by Cathy Galvin on contemporary war poetry by services personnel,  on  Sunday 9th November. It had some new poems and interviews with their authors. In the travel section was a full page on Wilfred Owen.

Sunday Times war poetry by military personnel: to read the poems featured in the above article and other war poems go to www.timesonline.co.uk/warpoetry

9 November  Royal Albert Hall. A performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem.  See below.

BBC Radio 4 had a very moving thirty minute programme of war poetry from and about Iraq and Afghanistan on Sunday 16 November. Repeat: The programme was repeated at  23.30 on 22 November.

BBC 4 carried an hour's programme on Wilfred Owen on Sunday 9th November.
One of the images from the Guardian series, 8-15 November 2008

Picture of French soldiers marching to the Western Front

Members of a French soldiers' band marching to the front.
The American poet Alan Seeger, who composed the wartime poem Rendezvous, was killed in action at Belloy-en-Santerre on July 4 1916.
[The poem Rendezvous  - "I have a rendezvous with death" - is in Minds at War and  Out in the Dark.]
A page from the Guardian series. Click to view. The texts of the poems featured on this Guardian page (Mental Cases, Anthem for Doomed Youth and Disabled) appear in both of the above anthologies. The Guardian article shows an early draft of Anthem for Doomed Youth.

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem 

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was inspired by and includes the singing of eight of Wilfred Owen's war poems plus a poem fragment. The requiem also uses the the text of the requiem mass. 

The first performance was in Coventry Cathedral on 30th May 1962. The use of Wilfred owen's poems in this exceptionally powerful and moving masterpiece did much to bring Owen's relatively unknown poetry to a wider audience. Since this time he has become ever more widely acknowledged as the greatest of all war poets. There are links to more information about Wilfred Owen in the left column of the warpoetry first page.

Back to warpoetry first page.

Exhibition at the Imperial War Museum 2008

In Memoriam: Remembering the Great War
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London, SE1.
Open daily, 10.00-18.00
Closed: Closed 24-26 December
www.iwm.org.uk

New book - November 2008
new war poetry book cover voices of the poppies

Voices of the Poppies is an anthology of contemporary writing on the subject of war. The poems in this anthology have been selected from ForcesPoetry.com – a website created for all poets, including members of the Armed Forces and their families.

Forces Poetry is part of the Forces Literary Organisation Worldwide (FLOW for ALL) which is dedicated to offering assistance to those who have suffered from the effects of war, especially the suffering shared by servicemen and women, their relatives and their friends.

Introduction by Dame Vera Lynn DBE

"I only have to read the poem In Flanders Fields by Lt Col John McCrae or Kipling's Tommy to fully appreciate and be thankful for the beauty of Forces Poetry.
To see this tradition still flourishing in the fertile minds of today's young men and women of our armed forces is gratifying and humbling. They leave us such a precious legacy which is matched by their courage, honour and duty.
We must never forget them."

Price 8.99 available from Silverwood publishing via the following link: http://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/detail.asp?item=14.

For more information about the organisation go to http://www.flowforall.org/about.asp

Back to warpoetry first page.

To top of page