There were three times as many British soldiers in WWI, and they
fought 3 times as long. I suspect as well that the US expeditionary
force was heavily weighted towards a less-educated class base, and
most poets weren't working-class. In Britain if you could walk you served.
In light of the recent "10 best poetry books" thread, it seems to me
that we should be proposing "10 best wars" lists. I'm torn between
the Trojan War, the Albigensian Crusade and the War of Jenkins Ear
for first place. Which leads me to the inevitable conclusion that
criteria need to be spelled out. Ten best literary wars? 10
bloodiest? 10 stupidest? 10 most obscure? 10 with the funniest names?
Just trying to be helpful.
Mark
At 10:53 AM 4/22/2009, you wrote:
>Also ignored is E. E. Cummings.
>
>Hal
>
>"There is poetry in everything. That
>is the biggest argument against poetry."
> --Miroslav Holub
>
>Halvard Johnson
>================
>[log in to unmask]
>http://sites.google.com/site/halvardjohnson/Home
>http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
>http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
>http://www.hamiltonstone.org
>
>
>
>
>
>On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Douglas Barbour
><[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
> > Interesting question; but I have no idea....
> >
> > Except the Brits went in all full of the joy of war early & then lived,
> > some of them, long enough to find out how wrong they were....
> >
> > (& you're ignoring Pound & Eliot, who didn't 'go to war' but certainly
> > responded to it...; not 'war poets' though.)
> >
> > Doug
> > On 21-Apr-09, at 12:15 PM, Bradley Omanson wrote:
> >
> > Any opinions as to why America produced no poets comparable to the British
> >> poets during WWI? American novelists produced a significant body of
> >> literature related to the war, so why not the poets?
> >>
> >>
> > Douglas Barbour
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ <http://www.ualberta.ca/%7Edbarbour/>
> >
> > Latest books:
> > Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> > http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> > Wednesdays'
> >
> >
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
> >
> > There's the wind and the rain
> > And the mercy of the fallen
> > Who say they have no claim to know what's right
> > Dar Williams
> >
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