Of course, the sonnet has ‘not aged well’, as we say now but there are some who now think Brooke was being ironic in these patriotic poems, so it’s hard to tell what he himself thought. The opening sonnet in the short sequence of poems Brooke wrote under the title ‘1914’, about the outbreak of the First World War, this poem reflects the jingoistic spirit that was prevalent at the beginning of that conflict: Brooke sees the war as his generation’s time to shine. Here she meditates on the calm that a deep peace brings: Yet at its best, Teasdale’s work has a lyricism and beauty which can rival that of many poets of her time. Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American lyric poet whose work is often overlooked in discussions of twentieth-century American poetry. The poem, with its recurring refrain to ‘sleep safe till tomorrow’, might be thought of as a lullaby. Whilst Orion’s sword glistens and the serpent writhes, all is peaceful and calm on earth. This poem from one of America’s greatest modernist poets looks to the stars for its subject – and, specifically, the constellations. William Carlos Williams, ‘ Peace on Earth’.
This poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is short – so short, in fact, that like Dickinson’s peace-poem above, it can be quoted in full here:Ħ.
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