'Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes
Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.'

The true horror of the trenches is brought to life in this selection of poetry from the front line.

Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th-century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918). Owen is available in Penguin Classics in Three Poets of the First World War: Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) was one of the leading poets of the First World War. Brought up in Birkenhead and Shrewsbury, Owen worked as a lay assistant to the vicar of Dunsden before teaching in France the year before the war broke out. In 1915 he enlisted in the Artists Rifles and was wounded in combat in 1917. Recovering from concussion and shell shock in an Edinburgh hospital, Owen met another patient, the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who became his mentor. At this time Owen wrote many of his greatest poems including 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'. In June 1918 Owen returned to France and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery. He was killed on 4th November 1918, one week before Armistice Day.