War poetry
Sir: Unfortunately, my surface-mail copy (28 November 1981) has reached me only now, but I should be grateful if you would allow me to comment on P. J. Kavanagh's excellent review of C. H. Sisson's English Poetry 1900-1950. Mr Kavanagh is rightly impressed by Sisson's discussion of 'war poetry' and particularly by his analysis of Wilfred Owen's writings both of which, Sisson feels, have been uncritically acclaim- ed for their 'sentiments' or 'subject' rather than real poetic merit. Mr Kavanagh goes on to remark: 'This is splendid to hear because he (Sisson) is talking about the ac- cepted, unexamined, texts of the age.' In my book Spirit Above Wars (Macmillan, 1976), I did examine and challenge the con- ventional attitudes to modern English war poetry and did suggest that much of 'war poetry' was marred by journalistic pro- paganda and also that the poetry of Wilfred Owen was highly over-rated.
May I take this opportunity of con- gratulating Mr Kavanagh for choosing Poems of G. S. Fraser as one of the two of his Books of the Year? To me, this choice suggests not only the deserved recognition of Fraser as a poet but also Mr Kavanagh's bold and discerning critical judgment.
Dr A. Banerjee
Department of English, Kobe College, 4-1 Okadayama, Nishinomiya, Japan
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