Who were his favourite poets?
This is a very difficult question to answer, as Blunden was a prolific reader and collector of poetry. When asked the question: What is your favourite poem? He would give a variety of responses, including Williams Collins Ode to Evening, Marvells The Garden, Shelleys The Question or Walter De La Mares The Listeners. Other poets that may well have fallen into the category of his favourite poets include Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Lamb, Wordsworth and John Clare. More modern poets whose work he enjoyed include Ted Hughes and Cecil Day Lewis. His edition of Owens poetry was the first wide-ranging selection to be published (1931). He described Owen as the the greatest of the English war poets with the exception of Sassoon. As well as all these well-known poets he also sought out the works of minor poets including, Christopher Smart, William Collins and Charles Churchill.
