Selected Poems

No poetry has touched readers' hearts more deeply than the soldier poets of the First World War. Published to commemorate the centenary of 1914, this stunning set of books, with specially commissioned covers by leading print makers, is an essential gathering of our most beloved war poets introduced by leading poets and biographers of our present day. Robert Graves was one of our most fascinating poets of the last century. Born in London in 1895, he served in the First World War and was mistakenly reported killed in action at the Battle of the Somme, as he vividly recounted in his memoir, Goodbye To All That (1929). While serving in France, he befriended Siegfried Sassoon, and would be instrumental in saving Sassoon from the threat of court-martial that followed his declaration against the prolonging of the war. When Graves visited Sassoon at Craiglockhart Hospital he met Wilfred Owen, and for a time the three poets began to work closely in what Michael Longley, this volume's editor, calls 'a momentous coincidence of talent'. Robert Graves died in 1985 and is commemorated Poets' Corner at in Westminster Abbey.