THE WAR POETS

The War Poets

"The First World War poets Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Graves and Rupert Brooke were the bloggers of the day. They revealed a different war to the one being reported through mainstream sources. They were like the social networkers of their day."

Simon Armitage, Radio Times WW1 100 years series.

Lieutenant Wilfred Owen MC

Wilfred Owen is probably the best known of the World War Poets. Owen is best known for his poems Dulce et Decorem Est and Anthem for Doomed Youth.

He was mentored by Siegfried Sassoon who he met in Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh when he was being treated for shell shock (post traumatic stress disorder).

Owen was killed in active service in November 1918, one week before Armistice Day. All his poems were published after his death.

Dulce et Decorem Est (read by Christopher Eccleston)

Anthem for Doomed Youth (read by Sean Bean)

Captain Siegfried Sassoon MC

Many of Sassoon's war poems were published in a collection called Counter-Attack and Other Poems.

The poem below is called "The Hero" and is actually read out by Siegfried Sassoon

In 1917 Sassoon wrote a letter to his commanding officer explaining why he was not returning to active service. A copy of his letter was read out in the House of Commons on July 30 and printed in the London Times the following day.

Finished with the War: A soldier's declaration

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

John McCrae was a Canadian surgeon and poet. He is most famous for his poem In Flanders Fields. McCrae was a field surgeon in the Canadian artillery. He was in charge of a field hospital during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. He wrote his poem after the burial of his friend Alexis Helmer.

This is the memorial to John McCrae next to the field Hospital near Ypres

In Flanders Fields (Read by Tom O'Bedlam)