Poems of War

This selection gathers the poems Owen wrote from the Western Front and from hospital in 1917 and 1918, most of them published after his death. Typical pieces describe gas, mud, a sentry blinded in a dugout, a meeting in some underground afterlife, and the contrast between civilian slogans and a boy's corpse. Half-rhyme and sudden shifts of register carry the shock. Recurring figures are unnamed infantrymen, officers who must send them forward, and a speaker who is both witness and participant. The book is a concentrated body of war lyrics, not a memoir in prose and not a general history of the campaign.

Quarter bound in black cloth, dark green moiré silk boards. Black cover-label lettered in gold. Ann Muir marbled endleaves. Transparent plastic dust-cover. No slipcase.