Robert Graves was born July 24, 1895, in Wimbledon, England. Graves was the eighth of his father’s 10 children. His father, Alfred Graves, married twice and was a scholar and poet. His mother was German, and his birth name, Robert von Ranke Graves, caused problems in the years before, during and after World War I. […]
Siegfried Sassoon: Mental Scars that Last a lifetime
Siegfried Sassoon is one of the few World War I poets to survive the war. “Siegfried Sassoon is best remembered for his angry and compassionate poems of the First World War, which brought him public and critical acclaim,” the Poetry Foundation says. “Avoiding the sentimentality and jingoism of many war poets, Sassoon wrote of the […]
Wilfred Owen: One of the Greatest Voices of World War One
“Wilfred Owen is widely recognised as one of the greatest voices of the First World War,” the association that bares his name says. Indeed, he is perhaps the best known poet to come out of the conflict. The majority of Owen’s poems, however, were published after his death, including his most famous — Dulce et Decorum […]
In Flanders Fields
“In Flanders Fields,” written by a doctor during the Second Battle of Ypres, is perhaps the best known poem to come out of World War I. Canadian military physician Major John McCrae was serving as brigade doctor when his friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed. The chaplain was engaged elsewhere, so McCrae was asked to […]