ISBN Three Poets of the First World War

Three Poets of the First World War

An essential new collection of poetry from the First World War

This indispensable anthology brings together the works of three major poets from the First World War. Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) was a classical music composer and poet who published two volumes of poems, Severn and Somme and War’s Embers. Wilfred Owen’s (1893- 1918) realistic poetry is remarkable for its details of war and combat. Isaac Rosenberg’s (1890-1918) Poems from the Trenches is widely considered one of the finest examples of war poetry from the period. Carefully selected by Jon Stallworthy, a professor emeritus of English at the University of Oxford, these poems comprise a landmark publication that reflects the disparate experiences of war through the voices of the soldiers themselves.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.


About author(s)
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was one of the leading poets of the First World War. Brought up in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury, Owen worked as a lay assistant to the vicar of Dunsden before teaching in France the year before the war broke out. In 1915 he enlisted in the Artists Rifles and was wounded in combat in 1917. Recovering from concussion and shell shock in an Edinburgh hospital, Owen met another patient, the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who became his mentor. At this time Owen wrote many of his greatest poems including ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. In June 1918 Owen returned to France and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. He was killed on 4th November 1918, one week before Armistice Day.