World War I in literature

Literature in World War I is generally thought to include poems, novels and drama; diaries, letters, and memoirs are often included in this category as well. Although the canon continues to be challenged, the texts most frequently taught in schools and universities are lyrics by Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen; poems by Ivor Gurney, Edward Thomas, Charles Sorley, David Jones and Isaac Rosenberg are also widely anthologised. Many of the works during and about the war were written by men, because of the war's intense demand on the young men of that generation; however, a number of women (especially in the British tradition) created literature about the war, often observing the effects of the war on soldiers, domestic spaces, and the homefront more generally.

The spread of education in Britain in the decades leading up to World War I meant that British soldiers and the British public of all classes were literate. Professional and amateur authors were prolific during and after the war and found a market for their works.

Literature was produced throughout the war - with women, as well as men, feeling the 'need to record their experiences' - but it was in the late 1920s and early 1930s that Britain had a boom in publication of war literature. The next boom period was in the 1960s, when there was renewed interest in the First World War during the fiftieth anniversaries and after two decades focused on the Second.

Published poets wrote over two thousand poems about and during the war. However, only a small fraction is still known today, while several poets that were popular with contemporary readers are now obscure. An orthodox selection of poets and poems emerged during the 1960s, which often remains the standard in modern collections and distorts the impression of World War I poetry. This selection tends to emphasise the horror of war, suffering, tragedy and anger against those that wage war.

In the early weeks of the war, British poets responded with an outpouring of literary production. Rudyard Kipling's For all we have and are was syndicated extensively by newspapers in English speaking countries.Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate, contributed a poem Wake Up, England! at the outbreak of war that he later wished suppressed.,John Masefield, who later succeeded Bridges as Poet Laureate, wrote August, 1914, a poem that was widely admired.

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