Owen and Sassoon

Owen and Sassoon: The Edinburgh Poems

Wilfred Owen (author), Siegfried Sassoon (author)

Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, both suffering from shell shock, were sent to convalesce at Craicklockart hospital in Edinburgh in 1917. Owen, who referred to himself as the ‘poet’s poet’ was unpublished at the time. It’s the influence and encouragement of Sassoon during this period that shaped Owen’s work. Sassoon was also instrumental in publishing Owen’s work posthumously after the war.

Here for the first time, collected in a single volume are the poems, written in Edinburgh, of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. These Edinburgh poems highlight the significance of the time these poets spent together in and around the city.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke.

Siegfried Sassoon was born in 1886 and educated at Clare College, Cambridge. He served in the trenches during the First World War, where he began to write the poems for which he is remembered. Despatched as ‘shell-shocked’ to hospital, he organised public protest against the war. His poetry initially met with little response, but his reputation grew steadily in the following decades.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Polygon (An Imprint of Birlinn Limited) (3 Nov. 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9781846976209
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 0.9 x 19.8 cm