Second World War Poems

by Hugh Haughton (Editor), Hugh Haughton (Editor)

The Second World War has shaped the modern world more than any other single event. This generous and haunting selection of English-language and translated poems includes verse written by servicemen who participated in the war – Keith Douglas, Alun Lewis, Randall Jarrell – as well as by survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust – Primo Levi, Nelly Sachs, Paul Celan – and civilians across Europe and beyond. It features work by important women poets – Elizabeth Bishop, H.D., Anna Akhmatova – exiles such as W. H. Auden and Berthold Brecht, and writers reporting from London, Paris, Warsaw, Moscow and New York, dealing with the terrifying impact and legacy of the conflict. Presented with a historical critical introduction and biographical notes, the result is a vital lyric testimony to the tragic global theatre of the war.

Genres: Poetry, War

384 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Lawrence Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am almost through with a first reading; as with almost all good books it is eminently dippable. It will be shelved with other books I look into again from time to time - THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE, Anna Ahkmatova, the now unfashionable but transcendent DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, Byron, Shelley, Keats ("and the guys in the band," per Inspector Hathaway), Mary Oliver, Shakespeare, Yevtushenko, and other dear friends.

Hugh Haughton's edit of SECOND WORLD WAR POEMS is not a Sergeant Rock / John Wayne rah-rah for the sort of unhappy men who can quote all the lines from PATTON from memory, but a global collection from many nations and from civilians, combatants, refugees, prisoners, and the condemned in death camps. Some of the poems are anonymous fragments found in the streets.

SECOND WORLD WAR POEMS is a book that deserves a wider readership and a better reviewer. It is brilliant. Please read it.