Edmund Blunden
Edmund Blunden was a distinguished English poet, known for his evocative depictions of the rural landscape and his poignant reflections on the experiences of World War I. A contemporary of notable poets such as Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, Blunden’s influential work, "Undertones of War," is regarded as one of the significant literary memoirs from the Great War period. Educated at Cleaves Grammar School and Christ's Hospital, he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment, where he was wounded and earned the Military Cross.
Following the war, Blunden pursued a career in academia, teaching English literature in various countries, including Japan and Hong Kong, while also contributing as a journalist and editor. His literary achievements earned him recognition, including the Hawthornden Prize for poetry and an appointment as Professor of Poetry at Oxford. Despite his reluctance to support World War II, Blunden's connections with Japan led to his election to the Japan Academy in 1950 as he worked towards healing the post-war relationship between the two nations. He continued to write and teach until declining health forced his retirement in 1968. Blunden’s legacy as a prominent poet was acknowledged with honors such as being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and receiving the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He passed away in 1974, leaving behind a rich body of work that resonates with themes of nature and the human experience of war.
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Subject Terms
Edmund Blunden
English poet
- Born: November 1, 1896
- Birthplace: London, England
- Died: January 20, 1974
- Place of death: Long Melford, Suffolk, England
Biography
Often described as a “Georgian” poet and admired for his loving descriptions of the rural English landscape, Edmund Blunden was also a noted poet of World War I, the contemporary of Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, Wilfred Owen, and Isaac Rosenberg. His Undertones of War is one of the great literary memoirs of the Great War. Blunden was also a scholar, particularly of the Romantic poets, Charles Lamb, and Thomas Hardy, a teacher and tutor of English literature in Oxford, Japan, and Hong Kong and a long-serving journalist, reviewer, and editor.
Educated in Cleaves Grammar School, Christ’s Hospital, Blunden served as a lieutenant with the Royal Sussex Regiment, received the military cross, and was wounded and gassed. After the war he studied briefly at Queen’s College, Oxford, before becoming a subeditor for J. Middleton Murry on the Athenaeum. Poor health forced him to take a tramp steamer cruise to South America, the “random journey” of which he describes in The Bonadventure: A Random Journal of an Atlantic Holiday, published in 1922. After winning the Hawthornden Prize for poetry, he was appointed to the Lafcadio Hearn Chair in English at the University of Tokyo 1924-1927. From 1931 to 1944 he was a fellow and tutor at Merton College, Oxford.
Given his experiences in World War I, Blunden was a reluctant supporter of World War II. In 1947 he returned to Japan with the United Kingdom Liaison Mission. With his love of literature and his admiration for Japan he helped heal some of the wounds of war, for which he was elected to the Japan Academy in 1950. Blunden returned to Asia in 1953 to teach English literature at the University of Hong Kong for the next ten years. He was elected professor of poetry at Oxford in 1966, but poor health forced his retirement in 1968. His last years were marked by physical and mental decline. He died in 1974.
Blunden, with his love of fishing, beer, and cricket, was in many ways an archetypal Englishman. His poems, both of war and of the English countryside, made him one of the most popular and accessible writers of his era. His prominence was recognized by the British government in 1951 when he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was also awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1956 and the Midsummer Prize in 1970.
Bibliography
Barlow, Adrian. The Great War in British Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Although intended more for the student reader, this short book does an effective job of overviewing the major issues faced by British writers like Vera Brittain, Robert Graves, Richard Aldington, and Edmund Blunden.
Bergonzi, Bernard. Heroes’ Twilight: A Study of the Literature of the Great War. 1965. Reprint. Manchester, England: Carcanet, 1996. Bergonzi’s book was one of the first critical studies of its subject written for the nonacademic. This work postulates that British writers represented the war in terms of a “complex fusion of tradition and unprecedented reality.”
Cross, Tim, ed. Lost Voices of World War I. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990. A moving anthology of poetry and other short works by writers who were killed in the conflict. It includes a fine introduction by Robert Wohl, a leading scholar of modernism, who offers valuable insight into how Blunden’s British contemporaries felt about literature and the role it plays in society.
Hibbard, Dominic. The First World War. London: Macmillan, 1990. This work offers a chronological study of the war seen through the eyes of the writers who represented it at the time and much later. Generally, Hibbard does not focus much attention on Blunden, although he does point out that writers were far from univocal in their treatment of the war; responses ranged from the kind produced by Blunden to the gossipy cynicism and outrage of Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon.
Mallon, Thomas. Edmund Blunden. Boston: Twayne, 1983. Like other works in the Twayne series, this study of Blunden is a fine starting point for general readers who are unfamiliar with the poet or his poetry.
Webb, Barry. Edmund Blunden: A Biography. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990. This biography goes into great detail about the difficulties he faced in finding suitable work and domestic happiness. The general picture that emerges is of a thoroughly decent, kindly man who made the best of the worst possible experiences.