Originally published in 1985, this book provides a full survey of the best and most significant work of German writers to the First World War. Including (in both German and English) the texts of all the main poems discussed, this book contains many not readily available elsewhere. Authors discussed include Trakl, Rile and George as well as less familiar names . The book not only corrects the distorted view of the subject perpetuated by most histories of German literature, but will also help to English First World War poetry into perspective.

Patrick Bridgwater was Professor of German at the University of Durham.

1. The Aesthetics of War 2. Georg Trakl 3. August Stramm 4. Lichtenstein, Ball and Klemm 5. Anton Schnack 6. Lersch, Bröger and Engelke 7. Epilogue. Translations of German Quotations. Bibliography. Index of Poems.