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  The Poetry of Wilfred Owen

  Wilfred Owen

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  Wilfred Owen was born on 18th March 1893 at Plas Wilmot, near Oswestry in Shropshire, the eldest of four children  
  Wilfred’s education was initially at the Birkenhead Institute and then later at Shrewsbury Technical school. 
  His mothers strong Anglican views passed through to Wilfred and the bible along with books on the Romantic Poets, particularly John Keats were particular favourites and contributed to his initial devotion to the Church. 
  By 1909 Wilfred was a pupil-teacher at the Wyle Cop school in Shrewsbury and two years later he passed the matriculation exam for the University of London. Unfortunately first class honours were required for a scholarship and this he did not achieve which meant he was not eligible for a scholarship; his only means of being able to afford to attend. 
  Wilfred now needed to complete his education by a different route. In return for free lodging, Wilfred worked as lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden near Reading. During this time he attended classes at University College, Reading, in botany and later Old English. He now became disillusioned with the Church, both in its ceremony and its failure to provide aid for those most in need. 
  In 1913 Wilfred began work as a private tutor teaching English and French at the Berlitz School of Languages in Bordeaux, France, and later with a family.  
  With the dark shadows of war beginning to envelop Europe many prepared for a future in the Services. But Wilfred did not rush to enlist but he did return to England. 
  On 21st October 1915, Wilfred enlisted with the Artists' Rifles Officers' Training Corps. For the next seven months, he trained at Hare Hall Camp in Essex. On 4th June 1916 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment.  
  Initially, he was discouraged by his troops behaviour, holding them in contempt for their loutish ways. Writing to his Mother he described them as "expressionless lumps".  
  The War now was to change his life dramatically in a series of sharp, traumatic shocks; he fell into a shell hole and suffered concussion; he was blown high into the air by a trench mortar, and spent several days lying out on an embankment in Savy Wood amongst (he thought) the remnants of a fellow officer.  
  Soon afterwards, Owen was diagnosed as suffering from neurasthenia or shell shock and sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh for treatment. It was while recuperating here that he met and befriended fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon. This encounter was to again transform his young life. 
  In November he was discharged from Craiglockhart and judged fit for light regimental duties. He spent a contented and fruitful winter in Scarborough, and in March 1918 was posted to Ripon where he composed a number of poems, including "Futility" and "Strange Meeting". His last birthday, his 25th, was spent quietly at Ripon Cathedral. 
  At the height of summer 1918 Owen returned to active service, although he might have stayed on home-duty indefinitely.  
  On 1st October 1918 Owen led units of the Second Manchesters to storm enemy strong points near the village of Joncourt. For his courage and leadership there he was awarded the Military Cross, an award he had always sought in order to justify himself as a war poet. 
  Germany was now struggling to contain the Allies advance and the end of the war was now in sight. However Wilfred would not live to see Europe at peace. He was killed in action on 4th November 1918 during the crossing of the Sambre–Oise Canal, one week before the Armistice.  
  His mother received the telegram informing her son’s death on November 11th, Armistice Day, as the church bells were ringing out the end of hostilities.  
  Wilfred Owen is buried at Ors Communal Cemetery. 
   This volume comes to you from Portable Poetry, a specialized imprint from Deadtree Publishing.  Our range is large and growing and cov

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  Black Oak - Odes Celebrating...

  Harold Green III

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  As he did for Black women in Black Roses, Harold Green III, poet and founder of the music collective Flowers for the Living, now honors the Black men he most admires—groundbreakers including Tyler Perry, Barry Jenkins, Billy Porter, Chance the Rapper, LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick, and John Legend—and celebrates their achievements which are transforming lives and making history. 
  Black men are changing society and the world through mastery, innovation, and inspiration at a pace never seen before. In awe of the myriad ways in which Black men are using their vision and power to remake culture and society, spoken word artist Harold Green began writing odes recognizing the extraordinary accomplishments of a series of Black men, which he shared on his Instagram account—tributes that went viral and became a social media sensation. Black Oak brings together many of these popular odes with original works written for this collection. 
  Divided into five sections—bravehearts, champions, dreamers, guardians, and humanitarians—Black Oak features iconic men who are spearheading movements, fighting for equality, challenging the status quo, embracing fatherhood, providing a transformative model of masculinity for our children, inspiring a new generation of creators, and more. Through these beautifully written verses, Harold does not simply place the Black men in this book on a pedestal, he transcends even the most positive stereotypes to view these men and their accomplishments in a new light, and creates meaningful connections between these beloved figures and the lives and experiences of readers of all backgrounds.  
  Black Oak includes odes to Barry Jenkins, Big K.R.I.T, Billy Porter, Black Thought, Chance the Rapper, Charles Booker, Colin Kaepernick, Dwyane Wade, Edmund Graham III, Eric Hale, Excell Hardy Jr., Harold Green III, Harold Green Jr., Harold Green Sr., Hebru Brantley, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Jamaal Bowman, Jason Reynolds, Jericho Brown, John Legend, Kehinde Wiley, Kerry James Marshall, Kevin Fredricks, Killer Mike, Kyler Broadus, LeBron James, Mahershala Ali, Marc Lamont Hill, Matthew Cherry, Orlando Cooper, Pharrell, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, Ryan Coogler, Swizz Beatz, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Theaster Gates, Tobe Nwigwe, Tristan Walker, and Tyler Perry. 
  The audiobook edition of Black Oak also includes an exclusive interview between Green, his father, and grandfather about the making of the collection.

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  Between the Rocks and the Olive...

  Zein Amro

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  Dear listener, I bare you my heart like an olive tree bares its fruit in the Levant sun. 
  Written in both North Levantine Arabic and English, this is a poetry book on love as I have experienced it. I wrote it with a vision, an image of myself being back on the olive field where my late grandfather used to harvest ripe olives whilst I sat between the rocks and the olive trees.

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  Rivers to the Sea

  Sara Teasdale

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  A bestseller at the time of its publication, Rivers to the Sea, Sara Teasdale's third collection of poetry, has remained in print since its debut in 1915. Passionate and romantic, full of longing, this masterful collection was dedicated to her husband. Sara Teasdale won the Pulitzer Prize for her book Love Songs in 1918. 
  copyright 2021 (P) alenbeebooks 
  AnnaLisa Bodtker is the narrator of the popular audiobooks The Rainbow and the Rose by Edith Nesbit, and Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale. 
  cover image: Desna river, feeder of the Southern Bug, at dawn. Ukraine, Vinnytsia Raion by George Chernilevsky

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  The Pemmican Eaters

  Marilyn Dumont

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  A picture of the Riel Resistance from one of Canada’s preeminent Métis poets
  
  With a title derived from John A. Macdonald’s moniker for the Métis, The Pemmican Eaters explores Marilyn Dumont’s sense of history as the dynamic present. Combining free verse and metered poems, her latest collection aims to recreate a palpable sense of the Riel Resistance period and evoke the geographical, linguistic/cultural, and political situation of Batoche during this time through the eyes of those who experienced the battles, as well as through the eyes of Gabriel and Madeleine Dumont and Louis Riel.
  
  Included in this collection are poems about the bison, seed beadwork, and the Red River Cart, and some poems employ elements of the Michif language, which, along with French and Cree, was spoken by Dumont’s ancestors. In Dumont’s The Pemmican Eaters, a multiplicity of identities is a strengthening rather than a weakening or diluting force in culture.

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  Paradise Lost

  John Milton

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  ‘Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit of the Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World, and all our woe…’ Paradise Lost is the greatest epic poem in the English language. In words remarkable for their richness of rhythm and imagery, Milton tells the story of Man’s creation, fall and redemption – to ‘justify the ways of God to men’. Milton produced characters which have become embedded in the consciousness of English literature – the frail, human pair, Adam and Eve; the terrible cohort of fallen angels; and Satan, tragic and heroic in his unremitting quest for revenge. The tale unfolds from the aftermath of the great battle between good and evil to the moving departure of Adam and Eve from Eden, with human and eternal anguish intertwined in magnificent resonance.

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