BY: JEFFREY C. ALFIER

What these poets produced was some of the most powerful and enduring
poetry of the twentieth century. For the majority of British soldier-poets the true enemy was not the Kaiser and his army but the senseless slaughter inherent in any human warfare. Hipp’s careful explication of several poems skillfully charts the poetic progress Owen, Sassoon and Gurney made in using imaginative aptitude to heal the deleterious effects of mental trauma wrought by war. By turning to the arduous road of healing, these poets’ oeuvres are redeemed from being relegated to a poetic subset of political protest literature. Although some scholars of the poetry of the First World War may find little new in Hipp’s fine work, it will remain enlightening and heuristic for a wide audience of students and literary enthusiasts, and thus a valuable contribution. Moreover, Owen, Gurney, and Sassoon are relevant not only to literary history but to our own day when the US Veteran’s Administration estimates that a high percentage of Iraq war veterans suffer from mental trauma. No doubt this war will witness, once more, healing through imagination and art, for which Owen, Gurney, and Sassoon are the exemplary forerunners. As such, Daniel Hipp has provided us with an important grasp of the legacy and impact of these great writers.

Jeffrey C. Alfier, a Southwest regionalist poet, divides his time between Tucson and Germany. In 2006, he received honorable mention for the Rachel Sherwood Poetry Prize. In 2005 he won first place awards from the Redrock Writer’s Guild of Utah and the Arizona State Poetry Society. He holds an MA in Humanities from California State University at Dominguez Hills. A former Air Force officer, he has also served as a functional analyst with Science Applications International Corporation, and once taught history as an adjunct faculty member with City College of Chicago’s European Division. A member of Poets Against War, he has been reviewing books of poetry for several years. His first chapbook, "Strangers Within the Gate" (2005), was published by The Moon Publishing and Printing, based in Tucson.