Why patriots are a bit nuts in the head
...ng: it is a strange irony that the worst of human experience has brought out some of the best poetry, especially in the case of the poetry of the First World War, which was responsible for inspiring most of this selection. The relationship between war, as seen through the eys of these poets, and Christianity, is as varied as the poems themselves. There are religious references of one sort or another in more than half of these poems; in them the church is sometimes seen as giving its blessing to a just war, and soldiers are seen as dying for a righteous cause in the name of God. Elsewhere there is criticism, real or implied, either of the church or of a God who allows such suffering to happen. Brooke can thank 'God who has matched us with this hour', but Owen can say sadly that 'love of God...