World War I Poets
The memorial in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey, to 16 Great War poets is a slate stone slab with the names of the poets inscribed on it. It was unveiled on 11 November 1985, the 67th anniversary of the Armistice. An additional inscription quotes Owen's "Preface":
| “ | My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. | ” |
| Image | Poet | Born | Died | Age when war started |
Notes on war service |
Notes on poetry |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Aldington | 1892 | 1962 | 22 | Enlisted 1916 Commissioned 1917 Second Lieutenant Royal Sussex Regiment |
... | |
| ... | Laurence Binyon | 1869 | 1943 | 44 | Volunteered in 1915 and 1916 Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois British hospital for French soldiers |
... |
| Edmund Blunden | 1896 | 1974 | 17 | Commissioned August 1915 Second Lieutenant Royal Sussex Regiment |
... | |
| Rupert Brooke † | 1887 | 1915 | 27 | Commissioned August 1914 Temporary Sub-Lieutenant Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve |
... | |
| ... | Wilfrid Gibson | 1878 | 1962 | 35 | Rejected several times Enlisted October 1917 Army Service Corps (Motor Transport) Never saw active service |
... |
| ... | Robert Graves | 1895 | 1985 | 19 | Commissioned 1914 Royal Welch Fusiliers |
... |
| Julian Grenfell † | 1888 | 1915 | 26 | Commissioned 1910 Captain (at time of death) Royal Dragoons |
... | |
| ... | Ivor Gurney | 1890 | 1937 | 23 | Private Gloucestershire Regiment |
... |
| ... | David Jones | 1895 | 1974 | 18 | Royal Welch Fusiliers | ... |
| ... | Robert Nichols | 1893 | 1944 | 20 | Commissioned 1914 Royal Artillery |
... |
| Wilfred Owen † | 1893 | 1918 | 21 | Enlisted 1915 Commissioned June 1916 Second Lieutenant Manchester Regiment |
... | |
| 100px | Herbert Read | 1893 | 1968 | 20 | Captain Green Howards |
... |
| Isaac Rosenberg † | 1890 | 1918 | 23 | Enlisted October 1915 12th Suffolk Folk Regiment King's Own Royal Lancaster |
... | |
| Siegfried Sassoon | 1886 | 1967 | 27 | Enlisted 1914 Commissioned May 1915 Captain (at end of war) Royal Welch Fusiliers |
... | |
| Charles Sorley † | 1895 | 1915 | 19 | Enlisted 1914 Captain (at time of death) Suffolk Regiment |
... | |
| Edward Thomas † | 1878 | 1917 | 36 | Enlisted July 1915 Artists Rifles Commissioned November 1916 Royal Garrison Artillery |
... |
Read more about this topic: Poets' Corner
Famous quotes containing the words world, war and/or poets:
“So the first it is written,
will be the twisted or the tortured individuals,
out of line, out of step with world so-called progress.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“In peacetime, they had all been normal decent, cowards, frightened of their wives, trembling before their bosses, terrified at the passing of the years, but war had made them gallant. They had been greedy men. Now they were self-sacrificing. They had been selfish. Now they were generous. War isn’t hell at all. It’s man at his best, the highest morality he is capable of.”
—Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981)
“Poets are sitting in my kitchen.
Why do these poets lie?
Why do children get children and
Did you hear what it said?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)