Strange Meetings

Strange Meetings chronicles the intersecting lives of World War I's most significant poets through their documented and imagined encounters over a fifty-year period. The narrative focuses on key figures including Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Robert Graves, and Vera Brittain, examining how their paths crossed before, during, and after the war. The book structures these biographical accounts around specific meetings between poets, beginning with Sassoon and Rupert Brooke's sole interaction in 1914. Through letters, diaries, and historical records, it reconstructs the relationships and interactions between these literary figures during a period of unprecedented global conflict. These personal encounters reveal the evolving perspectives on war, poetry, and survival among a generation of writers who experienced the trenches firsthand. The book serves as both a historical record and a study of how war transformed the artistic sensibilities of those who wrote about it.

Readers appreciate Ricketts' focus on the personal connections and meetings between WWI poets, rather than just their poetry. Many note the book provides context about the poets' lives and relationships that helps illuminate their work. Readers highlight the accessible writing style and how Ricketts weaves together biographical details with historical events. Several reviews mention learning new information about lesser-known poets beyond just Owen and Sassoon. Common criticisms include: - Too much basic biographical information that's available elsewhere - Not enough analysis of the actual poetry - Occasionally jumps between time periods in a confusing way Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (48 ratings) Amazon: 4.3/5 (15 ratings) "Offers a fresh perspective on how these poets influenced each other" - Goodreads reviewer "Could have gone deeper into the poetry itself instead of focusing so much on biographical details" - Amazon reviewer

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Anthem for Doomed Youth: Twelve Soldier Poets of the First World War by Jon Stallworthy Through parallel biographies, the text reveals the connections between twelve WWI poets and their shared experiences in the trenches.

Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology by Tim Kendall This collection presents war poems alongside biographical details and letters, showing the intersecting lives of soldier-poets during wartime.

🌟 Prior to being mortally wounded in 1915, Rupert Brooke wrote his most famous poem "The Soldier" while serving on a French hospital ship during WWI. 🌟 Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen first met at Craiglockhart War Hospital in 1917, where both were being treated for "shell shock" (now known as PTSD). 🌟 Vera Brittain was the only woman in this prominent group of war poets, and she served as a V.A.D. nurse during the war, losing both her fiancé and her brother in combat. 🌟 Author Harry Ricketts is not only a literary scholar but also a poet himself, and teaches at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. 🌟 The term "war poets" was first coined in the 1940s, long after WWI ended, to describe this specific group of British writers who shared their first-hand experiences of the Great War.