This is a bulky anthology of First World War poetry, nearly 400 pages. There is some overlap with Three poets of the First World War, the latter focusing on the poetry of Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen, but even so, it is worthwhile reading both books, as overall they are supplementary, while the reading of the identical poems in each just intensifies the impact.

The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry differs in several other aspects. First of all, it is an anthology with poems spanning the whole period of the year(s) leading up to the fighting, describing the months before going to the front, recruitment and preparation, and the aftermath. There is even a poem entotled "To a Conscript of 1940".

This anothology also includes the poetry of many women who often served different roles during the war, offereing a different perspective, not less horrible.

Much of the poetry is terrifying, creating strong images of the horrors of that war. Many of the poets also looked for moments of beauty, perhaps for consolation, but on the whole most poems convey the slaughter and the infernal horror of the war in the trenches.

Very impressive. ( )

5300. The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, Edited by George Walter (read 7 Aug 2015) When I was lent this book I had no intention of reading it page by page, since I seldom do so with a book of poems. But I started and found the Introduction so suggestive of the contents being carefully selected that I read all the poems. There must be about 200 of them. They are nearly all English, with many poems by Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and the like. Most are appropriately doleful and of course poems such as The Soldier, I Have a Rendezvous with Death, and In Flanders Fields, which I memorized in my younger days, are included. But only poems by poets who lived at the time of the war are included, so the World War One poem which I consider especially evocative: The Great War, by Vernon Scannell, is not included, since Scannell was not born till 1922. ( )

It is difficult for me to know what I should be reviewing here: the poetry within or the entire collection? I would give the poetry five stars, for it is an absolutely fantastic collection of poetry that can never be stopped in telling the gruesome truth of War and All. It also features poetry by women, which is something I have never encountered in modest amounts before. Thus meaning that as a collection, they have done well in picking those which capture the very essence of feeling.

But the way the book itself sets the poetry out is dismal. It runs in order of how the War panned out, yes, but that is as far as it allows. There is no contents page to let you know even where those of this order begins and ends and the introduction is tiresome. Considering this is from Penguin Classics, I am disappointed with that. ( )

Some very interesting information in the introduction that I hadn't realised. It's all quite obvious in retrospect but it was still a series of lightbulb moments for me so I'll make reference to it. The reason why there were hundreds of thousands of poems written and published during World War One was because:

- poetry was for most of Edwardian society, a part of everyday life;
- The media was also almost wholly print-based (cinema was still very much in its infancy);
- Victorian and Edwardian educational reforms resulted in increased literacy;
- the army which Britain sent to fight was the most widely and deeply educated in her history.

I find it very hard to imagine an era when poetry was so much a part of day-to-day life. Although I have never learnt the skill of appreciating poetry, as I read through a succession of these poems, and triggered by certain words or phrases, I started to get images of a grim, kaleidoscopic mix of lice, blood, death, patriotic songs, mad, futility, despair, absurdity, sickness, fear etc. It proved to be a powerful and moving experience.

As I was reading this book, I was also reading Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves. Sometimes the two books worked in tandem. Robert Graves describes the horror of The Battle of Loos and there - in this volume - are poems inspired by Loos.

One very small but moving moment was reading a poem written by Rudyard Kipling. When he actively encouraged his young son John to go to war he was expecting triumph and heroism. John died in the First World War, at the Battle of Loos in September 1915, at age 18. After his son's death, Kipling wrote...

If any question why we died / Tell them, because our fathers lied.

An important document of how World War One was experienced by a wide range of articulate and thoughtful people that brings the experience vividly to life. ( )

A fine collection of war poetry that I will be enjoying on a regular basis ( )