Selected Poetry of the First World War

The Selected Poetry of the First World War in the Wordsworth Classics series, edited by Marcus Clapham, is an anthology capturing the profound human cost and emotional intensity of World War I through verse. Published in 1995, it features iconic anti-war poets like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, and Charles Sorley, alongside lesser-known voices from the ranks, anonymous soldier songs, and trench writings that evoke the era’s waste, sacrifice, and futile heroism. Sassoon’s poignant query—Who will remember, passing through this Gate, the unheroic Dead who fed the guns?—exemplifies the collection’s raw lament for forgotten lives, offering readers a fresh, comprehensive introduction to how poetry immortalized the conflict’s horrors.