A reader’s guide to Twentieth-Century war poetry

Poets have written about wars throughout the twentieth century - questioning, protesting and, sometimes, celebrating the nature and purpose of conflict. Attracting an enthusiastic popular readership, war poetry has often been seen as a way of remembering and re-imagining wars. This Guide examines the genesis and development of the genre of war poetry in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on the role of the two world wars in the literary and cultural construction of a 'war poetry' category. It draws upon a range of key historical and contemporary critical responses, from poetic memoir and journalism to academic criticism, to demonstrate the rich diversity of expectations and evaluations elicited by the developing genre.