WAR POET is a biography of American poet, Alan Seeger, killed at the battle of the Somme in July 1916 and author of "I Have a Rendezvous with Death," the favorite poem of President John F. Kennedy and one of the most powerful and memorable war poems of all time. When first published in the fall of 1916, Seeger became an instant hero in America and, in Europe, many compared him to the martyred British poet Rupert Brooke. His death was seen by many as "one of the most romantic incidents of the war" and declared his poetry "the authentic voice of ... war's ennobling glory." Theodore Roosevelt called Seeger a "gallant, gifted young man ... A dreamer of dreams, whose deeds made his death nobly good." Even after the Great War ended the memory of Seeger and his poem did not die, with literary allusions to his work and his "rendezvous with death" making their way into the works of such writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. With a single poem, Alan Seeger entered the pantheon of history's greatest war poets. Even now, over one hundred years later, it is a work of power and magic which still resonates through generation after generation of Americans. Drawing on new and important archival material, Michael Hill, author of "Elihu Washburne: Diary and Letters of America's Minister to France During the Siege and Commune of Paris", paints a noble and poignant portrait of this little known but fascinating American poet.

DIVRich selection of powerful, moving verse includes Brooke's "The Soldier," Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth," "In Flanders Fields," by Lieut. Col. McCrae, more by Hardy, Kipling, many others. /div

The horrors of the First World War released a great outburst of emotional poetry from the soldiers who fought in it as well as many other giants of world literature. Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke and W B Yeats are just some of the poets whose work is featured in this anthology. The raw emotion unleashed in these poems still has the power to move readers today. As well as poems detailing the miseries of war there are poems on themes of bravery, friendship and loyalty, and this collection shows how even in the depths of despair the human spirit can still triumph.

This masterfully assembled volume, arranged chronologically, reveals American poets' shifting, conflicting reactions to the war and highlights their efforts to shape U.S. policies and define American attitudes. In his introduction, Mark W. Van Wienen describes the rapid, politically charged responses possible in a culture attuned to poetry. His historical and biographical notes provide a sturdy framework for the study of poetry's role in social activism and change during the "war to end war." The most complete resource of its kind, Rendezvous with Death brings together poetry originally published in little magazines, labor journals, newspapers, and wartime anthologies. Alight with sorrow, grace, silliness, satire, pride, and anger, works by IWW members, sock poets, pacifists, and protestors take their places next to those by Edith Wharton, Alan Seeger, Wallace Stevens, James Weldon Johnson, Amy Lowell, and Claude McKay.

A selection of poetry written during World War I. In the introduction Jon Silkin traces the changing mood of the poets - from patriotism through anger and compassion to an active desire for social change. The book includes work by Sassoon, Owen, Blunden, Rosenberg, Hardy and Lawrence.

While emphasizing aesthetic continuity between the wars, Stout stresses that the poetry that emerged from each displays a greater variety than is usually recognized."--Jacket.