'No subject for immortal verse' : The Gifts of the War Poets

An exploration of poems written during the Great War (1914-18), from the point of view of successive generations of British and Irish poets who sought to respond to contemporary civil emergencies, such as the Second Word War (1939-45), or the “Troubles” of Northern Ireland (c. 1968-94). The legacy of poets

Speakers

David Williams
Associate Professor of English at St Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo

Start

September 24, 2015 - 12:00 am

End

An exploration of poems written during the Great War (1914-18), from the point of view of successive generations of British and Irish poets who sought to respond to contemporary civil emergencies, such as the Second Word War (1939-45), or the “Troubles” of Northern Ireland (c. 1968-94). The legacy of poets such as Edward Thomas (1878-1917), Wilfrid Owen (1893-1918), and Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918), will be considered, both in terms of how they departed from established poetic conventions, and how they influenced later writers, such as Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), Michael Longley (b. 1939), and Geoffrey Hill (b. 1932). Topics to be discussed include authenticity and authority, form and formality, experience and witness, the personal and the public, and the role of the poet in (sometimes against) society.

JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST



Past Series Archive

Links of Interest

WARNING

You are viewing the Third Age Learning Burlington TEST SITE

Click 3alb.org to go to our live site