Tumult & Tears: The Story of the Great War Through the Eyes and Lives of Its Women Poets

Vivien Newman

Aug 2016 · Pen and Sword

About this ebook

During the First World War and its immediate aftermath, hundreds of women wrote thousands of poems on multiple themes and for many different purposes. Womens poetry was published, sold (sometimes to raise funds for charities as diverse as Beef Tea for Troops or The Blue Cross Fund for Warhorses), read, preserved, awarded prizes and often critically acclaimed. Tumult and Tears will demonstrate how womens war poetry, like that of their male counterparts, was largely based upon their day-to-day lives and contemporary beliefs. Poems are placed within their wartime context. From war worker to parent; from serving daughter to grieving mother, sweetheart, wife; from writing whilst within earshot of the guns, whilst making the munitions of war, or whilst sitting in relative safety at home, these predominantly amateur, middle-class poets explore, with a few tantalising gaps, nearly every aspect of womens wartime lives, from their newly public often uniformed roles to their sexuality.

About the author

Dr Vivien Newman is a respected expert on women in the First World War, with a particular interest in uncovering the lives of women overlooked by other historians. She is on the judging panel for the annual war poetry competitions organized by Never Such Innocence and has previously published numerous titles with Pen & Sword.