Muse of Fire: World War I as Seen Through the Lives of the Soldier Poets
Richly detailed, elegantly written and at times idiosyncratic ... At 90, he still writes engrossing prose. Even his footnotes, which address intersections between the lives of his subjects and his own biography, are engaging.
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Korda sets the intimate details of Brooke’s story, jewel-like, amid the larger context of a Europe on the blind precipice of catastrophe ... The sheer number of pages given over to Brooke, who died without seeing much, if any, combat, is slightly bewildering — particularly in a history meant to show us the whole war in all its remorseless violence ... In its breadth, the book occasionally lacks depth when it comes to probing the complex emotions behind its subjects’ verses ... Korda’s group portrait of soldier poets skillfully depicts how different classes of men experienced the Western Front and offers an entry point into a rich seam of under-read war poetry.
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Mr. Korda... expertly traces his poets’ shifts in outlook and subject matter, and along the way showcases candid, visceral verse that has lost none of its power to shock and move ... Mr. Korda serves up a winning blend of history and biography with discussion of a remarkable range of poems.
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