Every so often I come across a book and think, god I wish I was still in the classroom so I could get this book into the hands of kids. I think I’m going to email my friend who teaches reading and be all crazy about using this book, or parts of it, in her poetry unit. Where was this when I was trying to learn/understand/make meaning of poetry? Not even to get started about WWI Trench Poets and the passing of the 100th Anniversary of this war with very little fanfare.
Here’s the summary from Goodreads, because it does a better job than I can at encapsulating the book:
As the Great War dragged on and its catastrophic death toll mounted, a new artistic movement found its feet in the United Kingdom. The Trench Poets, as they came to be called, were soldier-poets dispatching their verse from the front lines. Known for its rejection of war as a romantic or noble enterprise, and its plainspoken condemnation of the senseless bloodshed of war, Trench Poetry soon became one of the most significant literary moments of its decade.
The marriage of poetry and comics is a deeply fruitful combination, as evidenced by this collection. In stark black and white, the words of the Trench Poets find dramatic expression and reinterpretation through the minds and pens of some of the greatest cartoonists working today.
With New York Times bestselling editor Chris Duffy (Nursery Rhyme Comics, Fairy Tale Comics) at the helm, Above the Dreamless Dead is a moving and illuminating tribute to those who fought and died in World War I. Twenty poems are interpreted in comics form by twenty of today’s leading cartoonists, including Eddie Campbell, Kevin Huizenga, George Pratt, and many others.
I am a graphic novel, graphic memoir, comics collection newbie. For those of you who read this format more frequently you will most certainly not have the entry issues I did in following the formatting. I also don’t read much poetry, but first person narrative works and songs have always been easier for me, since the meaning is more readily at the surface. However, there was still more to unpack, more to understand and the various artists who contributed to this work very evidently took the time to study their chosen poems and make interesting artistic choices as well as servicing the meaning and allusions in the various texts.
And thanks to Shmookariah for putting this on my radar.
This sounds fantastic. I really like this group of poets, in particular Rupert Brooke; in fact, I always told myself that if I ever went back to do a Masters degree, this would be one of my areas of study.
ETA: I did not buy this book, but you did inspire me to buy a WWI poetry collection on Amazon.
I didn’t think anyone could get me interested in poetry or graphic novels, but you may have just succeeded…
I have not been to Belgium, but my parents came back with tales of villages that still mourn the dead every day and are surrounded by thousands upon thousands of graves. Did you know they still find live ordinance every year? For a war that we have largely forgotten, there are people who still live with it every day. Hard to believe sometimes.
Yeah, this is probably something right up my angst-filled alley. And count me in as totally surprised that WWI Trench Poets were a thing.