added more and more poems and fragments, in various forms,
as it was difficult to tell which of Owen's drafts were his final ones,
until Jon Stallworthy's "Complete Poems and Fragments" (1983)
included all that could be found, and tried to put them
in chronological order, with the latest revisions, etc.

Therefore, it should not be surprising if some or most of these poems
differ from later editions.


After Owen's death, his writings gradually gained pre-eminence,
so that, although virtually unknown during the war, he came into high regard.
Benjamin Britten, the British composer who set nine of Owen's works
as the text of his "War Requiem" (shortly after the Second World War),
called Owen "by far our greatest war poet, and one of the most original poets
of this century." (Owen is especially noted for his use of pararhyme.)
Five of those nine texts are some form of poems included here, to wit:
`Anthem for Doomed Youth', `Futility', `Parable of the Old Men and the Young',
`The End', and `Strange Meeting'. The other four were `[Bugles Sang]',
`The Next War', `Sonnet [Be slowly lifted up]' and `At a Calvary
Near the Ancre' -- all of which the reader may wish to pursue,
being some of Owen's finest work. Fortunately, the poem which I consider
his best, and which is one of his most quoted -- `Dulce et Decorum est',
is included in this volume.


Specific Notes: --


Blighty: England, or a wound that would take a soldier home (to England).