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cayleighgb's review
Focusing on eleven people in one book that’s less than 300 pages really doesn’t work, to be honest. Very disjointed and not a lot of detail dedicated to each poet. Stopped reading because I’d rather just pick up an individual biography for each.
booksnpunks's review against another edition
3.0
This was an enlightening book, focusing on eleven of the First World War poets and collectively telling their story year by year, and also adding a chapter on "Aftermath" to discuss the posthumous fame of some of the writers, and also the poems written by people who didn't experience the war.
Dispersed through-out is also a collection of the writer's most famous and important poems, making this a half-anthology-half-biography. This was nice, as you were able to link the work with what was happening to each soldier at each point in his life.
I enjoyed Egremont's work, and am excited to pick up his biography on Siegfried Sassoon.
Dispersed through-out is also a collection of the writer's most famous and important poems, making this a half-anthology-half-biography. This was nice, as you were able to link the work with what was happening to each soldier at each point in his life.
I enjoyed Egremont's work, and am excited to pick up his biography on Siegfried Sassoon.
dqan's review against another edition
4.0
For the centenary of WWI, Max Egremont has given us a fine survey of WWI poets and poetry. More specifically, it covers British poets who actually participated in the war. "Some Desperate Glory" approaches the topic from several angles: history, biography, and the poetic works themselves.
The book is, essentially, arranged in six sections: one for each year of the war as well as one chapter covering the post war years. Each section contains biographical material about the poets, references to their part in the war, along with the poems mentioned. There are 80+ poems here - a healthy selection.
Since the material is presented chronologically, we get some sense of the growth and changes that marked out each artist's path. We get the bellicosity and confidence of the early years, the hopelessness of the interminable middle years, the relief of victory, and the many years of pondering that followed.
The book will be of most use to those whose primary interest has been in the military, political, and social history of WWI and who want to know more about the fighting British poets. Such readers will have a good framework in which to place the biographical and poetic elements to be found in this book.
While there is some historical context presented here, many readers would do well to pick up a general history of WWI or one that focuses on the daily lives of soldiers. The biographical information here is very interesting, but individual biographies would be more satisfying to some. Interested readers will also want to pick up additional collections that include poets of other nationalities (and viewpoints), WWI era poets who saw military action in prior wars, etc. There will be some overlap of course, but it will mostly be the cream of the crop - material worth revisiting multiple times.
I'm glad I took the time to read this book. I plan to revisit it. I've always struggled with poetry, but found this to be a palatable and interesting way to approach it. It was certainly a welcome bit of variety to add to my WWI studies.
I received this book at no cost through the Goodreads First Reads program.
The book is, essentially, arranged in six sections: one for each year of the war as well as one chapter covering the post war years. Each section contains biographical material about the poets, references to their part in the war, along with the poems mentioned. There are 80+ poems here - a healthy selection.
Since the material is presented chronologically, we get some sense of the growth and changes that marked out each artist's path. We get the bellicosity and confidence of the early years, the hopelessness of the interminable middle years, the relief of victory, and the many years of pondering that followed.
The book will be of most use to those whose primary interest has been in the military, political, and social history of WWI and who want to know more about the fighting British poets. Such readers will have a good framework in which to place the biographical and poetic elements to be found in this book.
While there is some historical context presented here, many readers would do well to pick up a general history of WWI or one that focuses on the daily lives of soldiers. The biographical information here is very interesting, but individual biographies would be more satisfying to some. Interested readers will also want to pick up additional collections that include poets of other nationalities (and viewpoints), WWI era poets who saw military action in prior wars, etc. There will be some overlap of course, but it will mostly be the cream of the crop - material worth revisiting multiple times.
I'm glad I took the time to read this book. I plan to revisit it. I've always struggled with poetry, but found this to be a palatable and interesting way to approach it. It was certainly a welcome bit of variety to add to my WWI studies.
I received this book at no cost through the Goodreads First Reads program.
cmbohn's review against another edition
4.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. The poetry was amazing, powerful, wrenching, heartbreaking stuff. But the sections between the poems were not as good. They were informative, but unfocused enough that I had a lot of trouble keeping everyone straight. It did make me want to learn more.
spennock's review
4.0
Some Desperate Glory written in 2014 celebrates the one hundred year anniversary of the start of WWI by showcasing the work of the British poets who expressed their complex feelings about the war through their poetry. The author divides the book into the years of the war 1914-1918 and gives a brief overview of the war related events of the year along with a selection of the poems written during that year. I found the book to be interesting and poignant as the facts about the battles and trench warfare are juxtaposed with the often heart wrenching poems about the brutality of the war and the suffering of the soldiers as they endeavored to fulfill their obligation to their country.
jackiijackii's review
3.0
Interesting in that all the information has been gathered together, but somewhat lengthy. I would have liked an 80:20 ratio of poetry:prose instead of the reverse.
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