The Cambridge Companion to the Poetry of the First World War

Description

The poetry of the First World War remains a singularly popular and powerful body of work. This Companion brings together leading scholars in the field to re-examine First World War poetry in English at the start of the centennial commemoration of the war. It offers historical and critical contexts, fresh readings of the important soldier-poets, and investigations of the war poetry of women and civilians, Georgians and Anglo-American modernists and of poetry from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the former British colonies. The volume explores the range and diversity of this body of work, its rich afterlife and the expanding horizons and reconfiguration of the term 'First World War Poetry'. Complete with a detailed chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion concludes with a conversation with three poets - Michael Longley, Andrew Motion and Jon Stallworthy - about why and how the war and its poetry continue to resonate with us.

Santanu Das is Reader in English at King's College London, and was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata, and St John's College, Cambridge. He is the author of Touch and Intimacy in First World War Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and the editor of Race, Empire and First World War Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2011). He has published in journals such as Modernism/Modernity, Textual Practice, and Essays in Criticism.

'The Cambridge Companion includes essays on poetry by women, and from all parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as from British colonies, to illuminate the expanding frame of reference.' The Times Literary Supplement 'Each title I have reviewed in the Cambridge Companions series offers a well-written and up-to-date analysis of its focus and once again this Companion meets the high standard of writing and intellectual engagement I expect.' Linda Kemp, Reference Reviews