Christopher Logue's War Music (1981), a long poem in three parts, freely based on Homer's Iliad, is one of the major achievements of postwar British poetry. Logue is also an accomplished lyric poet and a master of comic and satirical verse. Deeply indebted to Ezra Pound and, as a creative translator, one of Pound's most eminent successors, Logue is among the few British poets to have exploited the inheritance of modernism.

Born in Portsmouth to Molly and John Dominic Logue, Christopher Logue was educated at two Catholic schools and at Portsmouth Grammar School. His father was an official in the wages branch of the British postal service. In 1943 Christopher Logue volunteered for the army, and while serving with the Army Commandos at St. Ives, Cornwall, he suffered an injury which resulted in the loss of sight in one eye. After the disbanding of the Army Commandos Logue returned to...