UNT WWI poetry exhibit lecture and reception Feb. 23

Monday, February 13, 2017 - 15:51
One of the books of poetry that is on display during UNT’s Libraries Special Collections exhibit, The Lost Generation: World War I Poetry from the Donald Thomas War Poetry Collection. The exhibit will be open until May 11. Download image.
One of the books of poetry that is on display during UNT’s Libraries Special Collections exhibit, The Lost Generation: World War I Poetry from the Donald Thomas War Poetry Collection. The exhibit will be open until May 11. Download image.

A lecture and reception for the University of North Texas Libraries Special Collections latest exhibit, “The Lost Generation: World War I Poetry from the Donald Thomas War Poetry Collection,” will be held Feb. 23 (Thursday).

The lecture by John Peters, a distinguished research professor in the English Department at UNT, who helped curate the exhibit will begin at 4 p.m. in Room 140 of the Willis Library, located at 1506 W. Highland. Peters will discuss WWI and its effect on England and Europe in particular. He also will discuss a few of the better-known poems from the exhibit. A reception will follow from 5-7 p.m. in the Sarah T. Hughes Reading Room in the library. Both events are free and open to the public.

The exhibit, which opened Jan. 17 and will be on display until May 11 (Thursday) is located on the fourth floor of the library. It explores the work of many “soldier poets” from World War I, whose aesthetically rich and haunting verse often sits uncomfortably alongside popular ballads, songs, and toasts that attempt to sustain, or gently mock, the romanticized ideals of heroic self-sacrifice for the nation’s glory. In between these opposed perspectives there are responses to war, both critical and laudatory, from poets who did not enlist, including women on the home front and those in active services as nurses. To set these perspectives in context, the exhibit includes sections on visual images of war, particularly photography and poets’ responses to this technology.  

“This is a wonderful collection that is a great asset both for students and scholars of the First World War,” said Peters. UNT professors in the English Department Dahlia Porter and Bruce Bond also helped curate the exhibit.

Visitors for the UNT exhibit, lecture or reception may park at Highland Street Garage and Union Circle Garage or at the parking meters on Highland Street and West Sycamore Street for. For exact rates, please visit http://transportation.unt.edu/visitor_info.html.

 

 

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