Illustrated with magnificent crisp, contemporary photographs from the Daily Mail of World War I battlefields, battles, and heartbreaking scenes on the homefront, this book would serve as a fine companion to Paul Fussell's "The Great War and Modern Memory," which also invokes poetry. The text of "A Corner of a Foreign Field," however, is entirely of poems written during the war, many by well known writers like Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen, Sigfried Sassoon, etc. Far more, however, are by lesser known or unknown poets, including many women, all of whom I was unaware. These include some of the finest entries, made even more powerful because they came as a surprise.


In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.