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ENGL 310: Modern Poetry

Lecture 7 - World War I Poetry in England << previous session | next session >>

Overview:

A representative sample of English poetry of World War One is surveyed. War rhetoric and propaganda are examined and challenged in Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Strange Meeting." The relationship between home front and battle front is explored in Thomas Hardy's "Channel Firing," "In the Time of 'the Breaking of Nations,'" and "I Looked up From My Writing"; Edward Thomas's "Adlestrop"; and Siegfried Sassoon's "'Blighters.'" Isaac Rosenberg's "Louse Hunting" is discussed as a poem of ordinary experience in the trenches.  

Reading assignment:

Thomas Hardy: "Channel Firing," "In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations,'" "I Looked Up from My Writing"
Rudyard Kipling: "Epitaphs of the War"
Edward Thomas: "Adlestrop," "The Owl, Rain"
Siegfried Sassoon: "To His Dead Body," "'Blighters,'" "Dreamers," "The General," "Repression of War Experience," "Everyone Sang"
Wilfred Owen: "Anthem for Doomed Youth," "Dulce et Decorum Est," "Strange Meeting"
Isaac Rosenberg: "Louse Hunting"

Class lecture:

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Resources:

Handout 5: World War I Poetry in England [text]

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