British War Poets & Poems (WWI) recorded by Walter Rufus Eagles in streaming RealMedia audio.

EAGLESWEB.COM AUDIO ANTHOLOGY of LYRICAL POETRY in MODERN ENGLISH recorded by WALTER RUFUS EAGLES

eaglesweb.com poetry for the ear in the tradition of Homer
A personal literature and arts website. Click HERE for our editorial policy or to record your comments. Click on the red logo to return to home page. Readings by Walter Rufus Eagles in streaming RealAudio. The most recent additions are highlighted yellow.  Click HERE for poet and poem inclusion criteria. Hear also Morning Poem in Time of War and the photo/music memorial War Dead Poets.

The background audio message you are hearing is Wilfred Owen's preface to his last book of poetry, completed before he was killed in France in 1918. Please help honor Owen and his fellow poets who died in France by listening to his 63 second introduction, which might well have been written for this page.
Dona eis Requiem / In pacem aeterna pacem.

For war poetry of the First World War (and information about its poets), plus poetry about, Iraq, Falklands, Sierra Leone and Vietnam go to: www.warpoetry.co.uk

Click HERE for British resources on the subject of this page (www.tellmeabout.co.uk)

The British War Poets (WWI): [Note]

Rupert Brooke died from blood poisoning from an infected insect bite, 1915.

"A young Apollo, golden-haired,
Stands dreaming on the verge of strife,
Magnificently unprepared
For the long littleness of life."
- quatrain by Frances Cornford [listen]

These lines were for Brooke, called by W. B. Yeats,
"The most handsome man in England."
.
Read Sir Winston Churchill's obituary (text)
Audio recording by Walter Rufus Eagles [2:21]

The War Sonnets:

The Soldier (If I should die, think only this of me. . .) [0:53] See May Herschel-Clarke below

Peace (Now God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour. . .) [1:00]

Two Sonnets: The Dead [1:46]

Sonnet (1914): Safety [1:03]

Other Poems:

The Voice [1914] [1:59]

The Treasure [1914] [0:54]

A Channel Passage [1914] [0:57]

Sonnet: The Wayfarers [1905-1908] [0:57]

Heaven [1914] [1:35]
The Fish [1914] [3:30]
The Beginning [1905-1908] [1:03]

Alan Seeger [American, KIA 1916, France before America entered the war] [note]

Rendezvous [1:25] "I have a rendezvous with death"

William Noel ('W. N.') Hodgson ['Edward Melbourne'] died in service 1916.

Before Action [1:05]

Isaac Rosenberg killed in close combat in France on April 1, 1918 [note]

On right, self-portrait in pastel by Rosenberg. He had hoped to earn his living in portraiture after the war.

Edward Thomas killed in action in France, 1917, soon after arrival there.

Adlestrop [0:50]
As the Team's Head-Brass [2:03]
Aspens [1:24]
The Owl [1:04]
The Green Roads [1:10]
Liberty [1:32]
Tall Nettles [0:29]
The Other [4:35]
When First [1:1]

Wilfred Owen was machine-gunned to death in 1918.

Preface (found among his papers after he was killed) [1:03]
[War Sonnet:] Anthem for Doomed Youth [0:54]
Apologia pro Poemate Meo [2:00]
Asleep [1:27]
A Terre (being the philosophy of many soldiers) [3:51]
Conscious [1:05]
Disabled [2:42]
Dulce et Decorum Est [1:40]
Elegy in April and September (jabbered among the trees) [1:35]
[War Sonnet:] Futility [0:48]
Has Your Soul Sipped? [1:21]
I saw his Round Mouth's Crimson [0:36]
The Kind Ghosts [0:54]
Mental Cases [1:43]
[War Sonnet:] On Seeing a Piece of Our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action [1:01]
Parable of the Young Man and the Old [0:56]
The Send-off [1:02]
The Sentry [2:09]
Six o'clock in Princes Street [0:48]
Strange Meeting [2:34]
Wild with All Regrets dedicated to Siegfried Sassoon [2:21]

Dr. John McCrae died in service 1918. (Canadian physician) In Flanders Fields [0:44] His manuscript:

Charles Hamilton Sorley [1895-1915] Killed in action in France. Two Sonnets [1:42]

Siegfried Sassoon survived. All the poets above died in service. [back to Wilfred Owen] The Dragon and the Undying [0:51] Attack [0:55] The Redeemer [2:00] A Whispered Tale [1918][0:55] Base Details [1918][0:41] Autumn [1918][0:35] Remorse [1918][0:55] Together [1918][0:48] Suicide in the Trenches [1918][0:40] Thrushes [1918] [0:40] Reconciliation [1918][0:37] The Dug-Out [1918][0:35] The Dream [1918][1:56] How to Die [1918][0:46] Glory of Women [1918][0:53] Sick Leave [1918][0:46] Repression of War Experience [1918][2:11] Dead Musicians [1918][1:22] Counter-Attack [1918][2:25] Dreamers [1918][0:50] The Poet as Hero [1918][0:52]
May Herschel-Clarke [18??-19??] [no picture] Sonnet: The Mother [0:58] (written after she had read Rupert Brooke's sonnet, "The Soldier") [0:53] [return to Rupert Brooke] Archive of Morning Poem in Time of War Page: click here. *To visit Rudyard Kipling's war poem, A Death-Bed, click here.* *To visit my own poem, Reunion That Never Was, click here.*

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