The poetry of soldiers of the First World War. Supposedly the War to end ALL Wars, it was a bloody, brutal and harrowing campaign. It wasn't over by Christmas as many had speculated and lasted four long years and it marked the emergence of a new type of warfare.
The poetry in this anthology covers those four years of war, from the eager young men joining up to fight the enemy on foreign soil, to the maimed returning home and, of course, those who never returned at all.
The poems are deeply moving, especially those of the men stuck in the trenches, knee deep in mud with nothing to listen to but the sound of shells exploding outside and nothing to see but their friends injured and killed. Some of the poems were written by men who never returned, for whom their poetry is their legacy.
I defy anyone to look at war the same way after reading these.
