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WUIS program Quiddity, the radio-arm of the literary magazine, devotes an episode to war poetry and soldier-poets. We’ve been reading our share of war poetry here with James Winn and The Poetry of War, but the brilliant thing about the medium is to hear poets reading, speaking and singing their works and the extra impact […]
Read MoreJames Winn’s article on the Five Best works of war poetry in honor of Memorial Day As printed in the Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2008 1. The Iliad Translated by Robert Fagles. Viking, 1990. For sheer, unblinking realism, no war poem can surpass Homer’s “Iliad.” When a man is “skewered . . . straight […]
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The idea of chivalry has always been a fraud… …a system of polite and honorable ideals masking shameful and violent acts. Medieval poets played a crucial part in creating the myth of chivalry, and poets from many later periods were responsible for sustaining it. The persistence of chivalric myth is a sobering instance of poetry’s […]
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Women love a man in uniform, so they say. James Winn points out that even in 1714, some women saw through the supposed dignity that the red British military uniform brings. Some things never change; the dignity of the soldier is still being attacked and defended in America today, but in a different way. While […]
Read MoreWhile war may rob and subvert language, simplifying the grandest of catastrophes, the political realm can rob poetry of its soul, hijacking poetic language for its own gains. James Winn, author of The Poetry of War shows us how poets strike back. If you haven’t caught it yet, read Winn’s article in The Chronicle of […]
Read MoreJames Winn shows us that language, too, is broken down during war. The words employed by soldiers are quick, acronym-heavy, and devoid of flowery, unnecessary syllables, but in some cases, language is “eroded” by those off the battlefield. Winn is the author of The Poetry of War; you’ll see him soon in The Wall Street […]
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War poets bring an impossible beauty and entirely new perspective to the most awful of subjects. On Wednesdays, we’ll receive a new perspective on these writers. Yesterday’s New York Times ran a front-page story on the writings of American soldiers recently killed in Iraq. In the poems that have emerged from the conflict in Iraq, […]
Read MoreCheck out video of James Winn’s book launch here. Discuss.
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