* A group portrait of the poets of the First World War, seen in their full historical, military and biographical context, out now in paperback.
From the romantic longing of Rupert Brooke to the East End pragmatism of Isaac Rosenberg, the poetry that emerged from the trenches of WWI is a remarkable body of work, at once political manifesto and literary beacon. In a challenge to the widely held assumption that the poets of the First World War were universally 'anti-war', The Red Sweet Wine of Youth argues that it was the heroic rhetoric of traditional war poetry rather than war itself that angered poets such as Sassoon and Owen, men of great personal courage. Touching, vivid and unfailingly intelligent, The Red Sweet Wine of Youth brilliantly reveals the struggle of the artist to live fully and to bear witness in the annihilating squalor of battle.
'With lightly worn learning and considerable erudition, The Red Sweet Wine of Youth recuperates lesser-known writers such as Julian Grenfell and TE Hulme, and situates them alongside Wilfred Owen and Seigfried Sassoon . . . A fine account of the poetic sensibility of the period' Thomas Marks, Daily Telegraph
'A rich and compelling patchwork of responses to the conflict' David Evans, Financial Times
eBook logo
9780349121437
