Last Thursday we revisited the sonnet form and saw how the British WWI poets adapted this to their own expressive needs. We read works by Owen, Sassoon, and Rosenberg, looking for evidence of the war experience in these texts. Placing these works into context, we discussed the “innovations” of the Great War, including trench warfare, mustard gas, machine guns, tanks, etc., and also the recognition of shell-shock (post-traumatic stress disorder) among these poets, and how they wrote about internal, psychological injuries as well as those visible to anyone.
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