The Poems (Poetry Library) - Softcover

Of all the work bequeathed to us by that generation of young men who fought in the trenches, Owen's is the most remarkable for its breadth of sympathy and its understanding of human suffering and tenderness, at home and on the battlefield.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was one of the leading poets of the First World War. Brought up in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury, Owen worked as a lay assistant to the vicar of Dunsden before teaching in France the year before the war broke out. In 1915 he enlisted in the Artists Rifles and was wounded in combat in 1917. Recovering from concussion and shell shock in an Edinburgh hospital, Owen met another patient, the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who became his mentor. At this time Owen wrote many of his greatest poems including 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. In June 1918 Owen returned to France and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. He was killed on 4th November 1918, one week before Armistice Day.