Publisher's Synopsis
Dark clouds are smouldering into red
While down the craters morning burns.
The dying soldier shifts his head
To watch the glory that returns;
He lifts his fingers toward the skies
Where holy brightness breaks in flame;
Radiance reflected in his eyes,
And on his lips a whispered name.
The poems in this anthology-all written by poets who served on the front line-draw readers into the horrors of life in the trenches, documenting events as they unfolded in excruciating detail and creating a body of work so vivid that it continues to haunt us one hundred years later.
With First World War Poems from the Front, Paul O'Prey offers an in-depth exploration of the Great War poets, including powerful poems by Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Julian Grenfell, as well as two World War I nurses: Vera Brittain and Mary Borden. The poems are accompanied by a brief and accessible introduction and short biographical profiles that set them in context for readers new to the works.