LEADER
Melanie Blake is the director of Classical Pursuits. She has led tours on World War I poetry in France and Belgium, along with other Classical Pursuits tours in Paris, Italy, Colombia, Morocco, Japan, and more. Melanie has a BA in English and French from Fordham University and the Université de Montpellier and an MA from the University of Nottingham in literary linguistics, with a focus on cognitive linguistics and metaphor.
POEMS
Selected poems by
Edmund Blunden
Mary Borden
Vera Brittain
Margaret Postgate Cole
Robert Graves
Julian Grenfell
Ivor Gurney
James Weldon Johnson
Ellen La Motte
Grace Fallow Norton
Ada Tessibel Peters
Siegfried Sassoon
Charles Sorley
Edward Thomas
Poems will be provided via PDF.
The poems of the few soldier-poets that figure prominently in cultural memory are only a tiny fraction of the literature written and published about World War I. The vast body of World War I poetry defies easy categorization. Even the most iconic “anti-war” and “pro-war” poems reveal, upon close reading, nuances and contradictions that may make us question these labels. What do these poems, both known and forgotten, tell us about their creators, their contemporary audiences, and ourselves and our own attitudes toward war?
Each week will be dedicated to a different theme:
Week 1: On the Battlefield
Week 2: Wounded Bodies, Restless Minds
Week 3: Thinking of Home
Week 4: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
The seminar materials will include preparatory background reading, and a brief introduction to poetry of the Western Front.
PRACTICAL DETAILS
All online seminars are priced in Canadian dollars.
All online seminar payments are nonrefundable.
Once you register, you’ll get an order confirmation. We’ll send you the Zoom link and a welcome letter from your leader about 3 weeks before the seminar starts.
This seminar is a great way to deepen your tour experience for our April 2026 They Came to Paris tour, which will explore the beginnings of modernism in the early 1900s and how WWI accelerated the artistic revolution taking place in the West. If you are registered for our They Came to Paris tour, save 50% on this online seminar. Participants who intend to register for the Paris tour can take the discounted seminar price. In the event you are not able to book the tour, Classical Pursuits will charge for the remaining 50% of your payment.
Classical Pursuits will record this seminar, and make each session privately available to registered participants for up to two weeks after that session.
Seminar group sizes are a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12. See full terms and conditions for Classical Pursuits online seminars. By registering for a seminar, you agree to abide by our code of conduct.
Image credit: The Menin Road by Paul Nash
