1. 20th Century Poetry

2. WWI and the Trench Poets
To understand the Trench Poets, we must understand how WWI was different from any previous war
Trench warfare

3. World War I
Destruction caused by the Halifax explosion

4. World War I
Verdun: Cloister of the Hotel de la Princerie: before

5. World War I
Verdun: Cloister of the Hotel de la Princerie: after

6. World War I
Village of Esnes: before

7. World War I
Village of Esnes: after

8. World War I
Palace of Justice, Senlis : before

9. World War I
Palace of Justice, Senlis: after

10. World War I
Belgian troops entrenched along a railway line

11. World War I
Belgian troops entrenched along a railway line

12. Wilfred Owen
an English poet whose work was characterized by his anger at the cruelty and waste of war
Was caught in a shell explosion in May 1917
while in the hospital he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who helped Owen get his start as a writer
Went back to the front, killed in action in 1918

13. Siegfried Sassoon
Joined the military voluntarily just before the war started
Honored and decorated for his extremely brave actions in the War
Despite having been decorated for bravery, he decided in 1917 to make a stand against the conduct of the war

14. W.B. Yeats An Irishman—born in Dublin in 1865
Poet, playwright, and philosopher

15. W.H. Auden Grew up in a middle-class English family
Coined the age in which he lived “The Age of Anxiety”
Moved to America in 1939
He had come to feel that the rise of fascism in Europe—and the likelihood of war—would make it impossible for him to enjoy creative freedom anywhere but in America

16. W.H. Auden
Musée des Beaux Arts is based on a famous painting by Pieter Brueghel entitled The Fall of Icarus
Greek legend—Icarus and Daedalus were imprisoned on an island
In order to escape, Daedalus constructed wings of feather and wax
They managed to escape from the island, but Icarus flew too close to the sun—the wax in his wings melted, and he fell and drowned.

17. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

18. Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) Welsh poet Prodigy
Wrote some of his most famous works before he was 20
Lived most of his life on the edge of poverty
Plagued by alcoholism most of his adult life

19. Dylan Thomas ( )
Made several successful reading tours of America
Was very popular in America; died at the height of his fame
As a child, spent his summer months on a farm
“Fern Hill”