Anthem For Doomed Youth (Penguin Little Black Classics)

These poems are not just some of the most beautiful in modern English, but capture the events that unfolded during the Great War on levels rarely touched before or since. The ruins of Old Europe lay scattered like fragments through the verses, where boats traveling to Avalon and Abraham sacrificing his son remind us that memorable events in history are preceded by even greater changes in human though. Something happened to us, Europeans, during that Great War, that we dare not speak of. This collection might help to break our silence.

A necessary primer for any poetry lover or aficionado of English literature.What's interesting is that I discovered that although the more "straight" war poems are good, his more abstract/obscuring pieces like "Futility" and "The Show" are the ones that I think are his best work (at least of those which I have read). What a shame he never got a chance in peacetime to explore more experimental forms."To break Earth's sleep..." what a line...

Owen, such a loss, but every one a gem. Read them slowly, his pre-war writing is not great, it took Sassoon to show him how to polish a poem.bif you go to the Imperial War Museum in London you can see the original of Dulce et Decorum est and see the two men's handwriting as they edited together. Was a religious-like experience for me.

Some very good war poems. Preferred the free verse over the rhyming poems. Great war poetry if you want to get a taste of trench life.

Wilfred Owen writes truly from the heart, faced with war and death, positioned on the front line.His poems are deep and moving, and I feel he deserves to be internationally recognized.