1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G96a46lkHI
According to Poetry Foundation, Richard
Aldington was prominent in several literary
capacities; most notably as a founding
poet of the Imagist movement and as a
novelist who conveyed the horror of World
War I through his written works. He was
also a prolific critic, translator, and
essayist. Though he considered his novels
to be his most important works, he
received much critical attention for his
biographies of such contemporaries as
Lawrence of Arabia and D.H. Lawrence.
Aldington began his literary career in
London as a part-time sports journalist
after leaving college and quickly became
part of an influential circle of British writers
that included William Butler
Yeats However, he became disillusioned
with the literary scene after returning from
battle in World War I, and he moved to
France and lived the life of an expatriate
writer abroad.
2.
3.
4. The First World War was a great tragedy, and the WWI
poets expressed their traumatic experiences of the war.
Many volunteered to fight for what they thought was
honor and freedom, but the war bred atrocities that
they could neither imagine or understand. It seemed
that modern man himself controlled power beyond
control and the destruction of the world was
devastating. This world was unknown, it was
frightening, and it was godless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrOsIeUt90Q
6. During the winter of 1914-
1915, Brooke wrote a series of
sonnets on the war, published
in 1914, and Other
Poems (1915), in which he
idealized sacrificing one’s life
for one’s country. Brooke’s
health was compromised, and
before saw combat he took
sick and died on a hospital
ship
7.
8. Wilfred Owen, often regarded as the best British poet on World War I,
wrote nearly all of his poems between August 1917 and September
1918. In November 1918, one week before the war ended, he was
killed in action: he was twenty-five.
9.
10. One of the most compelling soldier-
poets of the First World War, Siegfried
Sassoon is best known for his graphic,
often shocking portrayal of trench
warfare during World War I and the
withering psychological distress it
imposed upon its combatants.
11.
12. Rosenberg’s poems,
particularly “Break of
Day in the Trenches,"
is characterized by a
combination of
compassion, clarity,
stoicism, and irony.
While on night patrol,
Rosenberg was killed
in battle on April 1,
1918. His body was
never found.
13.
14. During World
War I, Cannan
volunteered
to help
publish
government
propaganda.
She spent a
month in
Rouen, France
volunteering
at a railway
canteen for
soldiers, an
experience
that inspired
her most
famous poem,
“Rouen.”
15. 1. Compare and contrast Canaan’s “Rouen” to the other
poems. How is it different? The same? Consider
perspective, style, form, and content.
2. QHQ: In “Rouen,” how does Cannan’s view of the war
change as day turns into midnight?
3. Answer these five questions about any one of the
poems:
