Voices of Silence - The Alternative Book of First World War Poetry (compiled by Vivian Noakes, 2006)

I picked this book up for two reasons - I'm always interested in World War I material, and in general I need to get a better handle on poetry (there's so much going on there, and I just don't get it).

[By the way, I just watched a 1927 silent film, "Wings", starring Clara Bow. This showed a couple Americans who became aviators in WWI and vied for a girl. The flight sequences were amazingly good (how did they do this over 80 years ago?), and the overall picture really worked. And who knew, it was the very first film to win an Oscar for "Best Picture." And also launched Gary Cooper's career. Anyway, this WWI movie has nothing to do with this book, but is summarized nicely here, and also here. I was interested because I have to believe a WWI film-maker in 1927 would have a different take than folks coming along much later. Loved the scenes of the WWI-era tanks, etc.]

This book probably was better suited to the first aim. I guess there is a canon (with some variation of content) of WWI poetry that is recognized as the most significant; this book was an effort to pick up musings of the common soldier.

It is interesting to get the perspective of these folks; if nothing else, it is fascinating that writing poetry was a common pursuit among a wide variety of soldiers in those days. I don't think one would find much poetry coming out of today's troops stationed in Iraq, for instance.

I only made it about 2/3 through. Well worth it as an alternative view of the proceedings. You get the sense that no one knew what to make of the brave(?) new world of modern warfare, it just didn't match up to anyone's expectations of the glory of battle.