THE FIRST WORLD WAR
POETRY OF SIEGFRIED
SASSOON AND
WILFRED OWEN.
By SIEGFRIED SASSOON AND
WILFRED OWEN.
One hundred years ago, the world was
in the middle of a war which killed and
wounded thousands upon thousands of
young men (and a good few women and
children.) Those four years of death and
destruction have had a lasting impact upon
the whole world, in political, geographical
and social terms.
So why would you want to read poetry about
such an event?
Because, out of such carnage and destruction, poets such as Owen and Sassoon, (both
soldiers), created some of the most beautiful,
shocking, horrific, bitter, graphic poems. Their
works portray, in ways no one else comes near
to achieving, some of the harsh realities of trench
warfare.
You may well say it was a long time ago and no
longer relevant; but this is to miss the point; we
can learn from them, to try and prevent such
wholesale slaughter occurring again. It also puts
our o v