The range of poets and writers is broad. John McRae's "In Flanders Fields,” one of the more famous poems of the era, is told from the point of view of the war dead, who rousingly urge the living to keep fighting. George M. Cohan's song "Over There" was a rallying cry for the Americans in the war, cheering on the boys saving allies from the "Hun." Familiar selections like Kipling’s “My Boy Jack”—mourning a son who died in the war but rejoicing that he "did not shame his kind" by avoiding combat—are joined by surprises like Ivor Bertie Gurney’s mournful “To His Love” or the hit 1919 tune “How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm (After They've Seen Paree)?” One heartening theme is writers praising the soldiers of a different country, such as Ella Wheeler Wilcox's slightly besotted ode to the "bonnie Highland laddies" of Scotland.

Much less celebratory is the work of Siegfried Sassoon, whose poems are a scorching and satirical attack on those who pushed young men into the hell of war. The editors themselves take no part in the philosophical argument for or against war, though Varallo contributes some of his own poems about two soldiers on opposite sides: one kills the other, who is out of ammunition, but is haunted by the act. Varallo asks simply, "Who wins?" That cuts to the essence of the experience: it lingers far beyond the battlefield itself. Biographical information for the poets is often sourced from Wikipedia.

Takeaway: Rousing, mournful, thoughtful anthology of verse by soldiers in the First World War.

Comparable Titles: Lorrie Goldensohn’s American War Poetry, Rupert Brooke et. al’s A First World War Poetry Collection.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A_
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: B