Second World War Poems

by Hugh Haughton (Compiler)

This anthology brings together poems written during the period of the Second World War, which in some important way, are touched by or touch upon it, but also a selection of poems from later in the twentieth century, which deal with its legacy. It includes verse by renowned poets and writers such as Keith Douglas, Alun Lewis, Randall Jarrell and Primo Levi. There is also poetry by civilians and survivors in London, Warsaw, Moscow, New York, and by writers dealing with the terrifying legacy of the conflict and its dead for the living in the years after the war.

Genres: Poetry, War

Hardcover

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.