Poetry at its best says something about the human condition, often in relation to death, and the poets of WWI were serious writers operating at the very limit of human experience, sending back first-hand literary reports. It's difficult to imagine an equivalent situation ever occurring again, at least in the West. Most of the poets I know would think twice before setting a mouse-trap, let alone enlisting for active service,* and I don't have the subscription figures in front of me but I'd guess that readership of Poetry Review amongst Her Majesty's Armed Forces is pretty low.- Simon Armitage, The Not Dead (introduction)
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* As if to prove this point, Armitage refers (in 'Warriors') to 'the bun-line' - which has never been a military term, whatever any number of military personnel may try to tell you. (He/it/they mean 'bund-line', from an Indo-European word meaning earthworks, or dyke.)
Also, extraordinarily (in 'Albion'), 'sleighing [sic] the dragon'...
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