Muse of fire World War I as seen through the lives of the soldier poets

Review by Booklist Review

Brief biographies of a handful of WWI soldier-poets provide unique insight into the Great War. For Rupert Brooke, handsome Cantabrigian sonneteer, the war provided an outlet for youthful restlessness and a spate of complicated, largely unfulfilling, sexual entanglements. Felled off Gallipoli by an infected mosquito bite, the ardent author of "The Soldier" would become a recruiting symbol for the British war effort. Alan Seeger, a bohemian New Yorker who volunteered for the French Foreign Legion, romanticized the glories of hand-to-hand combat and died before he could change his mind. But as the war dragged on, poetic exuberance curdled. Robert Graves, whose rough-and-ready demeanor disguised a sensitive soul, described nightmarish battlefield scenes with a detached tone that amplified their horrors. In "The Kiss," Siegfried Sassoon wrote bitterly about the act of killing. Tracing each man's personal trajectory and their interactions with each other, Korda emphasizes the seductiveness of conflict and the fact that poets enjoyed an end-run around the military censors (and a massive readership). For Korda, now 90, this is both the latest in a long line of excellent war histories, including Alone: Britain, Dunkirk, and Defeat in Victory (2017) and Clouds of Glory (2014), and a work of personal significance, for his family fought on opposite sides of the conflict.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The lives and legacies of the young British men known as the "war poets" of WWI are explored in this agile literary study from biographer Korda (Ulysses S. Grant). During the early 20th century, poetry retained mass appeal in addition to being one of the few forms of expression not hindered by wartime censorship. As a result, according to Korda, poets were able to capture both the early patriotic fervor and, later on, what Wilfred Owen called the grim "pity of war." Korda focuses on six young poets--Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, and Alan Seeger--most of whom were from privileged backgrounds and had connections to other notable figures, including Winston Churchill. Korda's most comprehensive biographical sketch centers on the complicated but charming Brooke (1887--1915), whose reputation and poetry served as a recruitment tool, and who died from illness while serving. Korda's narrative pulsates with fascinating background detail and harrowing wartime exploits, and the story flows sinuously along channels of literary influence as the poets mentor or otherwise inspire one other. Most compellingly, Korda teases out the overlapping relationship between youthful artistic passion and the mass production of populist propaganda, painting trench warfare poetry as a kind of Edwardian TikTok. It's a sophisticated mix of literary and political history. Photos. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A fresh look at World War I, which has been largely "defined in our minds by its poetry." Korda, author of Clouds of Glory, Ike, and many other works of history and biography, delivers a captivating account of six soldier poets: Rupert Brooke, Alan Seeger, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, and Wilfred Owen. Spectacularly handsome and flamboyant, Brooke belonged to the progressive generation that rejected Victorian prudery and was more open to progressive ideas. He went to war with enthusiasm, like most of his class, and died before disgust set in. An American living in Paris in 1914, Seeger enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. Later poets recorded the horrors of war, but Seeger was one of the last to celebrate its glory: "And it was our pride and boast to be / The instruments of Destiny." Readers may recognize two survivors, Graves and Sassoon, from their postwar writings, as well as Owen, who was recognized by many as the greatest of the war poets before his death days preceding the armistice. Rosenberg, the son of an impoverished Russian immigrant Jewish family, had his talent recognized from childhood, winning prizes, honors, and patronage but little income. He enlisted in 1915, possibly because he needed money. Remaining a private, he suffered miserably and wrote his best poetry before being killed in April 1918. Alternating between the early lives of his subjects and their experiences in the trenches while delving into their poetry might be disorienting, but Korda is an expert, so his intertwining narratives intersect in illuminating ways. Readers will enjoy his portrayal of the early-20th-century British poetry establishment, where everyone seemed to know everyone else and mutual support was the rule. The book includes a generous selection of photos and illustrations. Poets and war are a winning combination in the hands of a seasoned historian. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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