Selected Poems

Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) grew up in Kent and went to school in Sussex at Christ's Hospital; these were the formative landscapes of his boyhood. He joined the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1915, serving in France and Flanders. His collection The Shepherd (1922) made his reputation as a poet; his classic account of his military service, Undertones of War (1928) was written while he was teaching in Japan. He made his living by writing and editing, with two extended periods of teaching: as a Fellow of Merton College 1931-42, and as Professor of English at the University of Hong Kong 1953-64. He received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1956, and was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford 1966-68. His passions were poetry, book collecting, cricket, and the English countryside; he was haunted by his war experience all his life.