Poems (Version 2)

The English poet Wilfred Owen was killed on 4th November 1918 just seven days before the Armistice which ended the First World War. This book, published in 1920 and edited by his friend Siegfried Sassoon, contains his best known poems.



The poems were not well received initially because they did not fit with the mood of triumphalism after the war. But they have latterly come to be considered one of the most significant collections of war poetry of the 20th century both for their alternative view of war ("the pity of war") and for their technical innovation.



(Summary by Alan Mapstone)