Second World War Poems

Poems From the Second World War is a moving and powerful collection of poems written by soldiers, nurses, mothers, sweethearts, and family and friends who experienced WWII from different standpoints. The Imperial War Museum was founded in 1917 to collect and display material relating to World War I, which was still being fought. Today IWM is unique in its coverage of conflicts, especially those involving Britain and the Commonwealth, from World War I to the present. They seek to provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and wartime experience.

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.

Acclaimed poet and World War II veteran Shapiro's pathbreaking gathering of work by more than 60 poets of the war years includes Randall Jarrell, Anthony Hecht, George Oppen, Richard Eberhart, William Bronk, and Woody Guthrie.

A collection of short poems about the author's time as a soldier in World War II. The author was born in New Jersey in 1925 and has lived in New York's Greenwich Village since 1952. He started writing poetry at age 75.

Collection of poems written by people who experienced the war first hand - from soldiers to nurses, families and sweethearts. Themes range from early excitement, patriotism, bravery, friendship and loyalty to heartbreak, disillusionment and regret as the damaging effects of the war were revealed. Poets include Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Vera Brittain, Eleanor Farjeon, and many more.

The horrors of the First World War released a great outburst of emotional poetry from the soldiers who fought in it as well as many other giants of world literature. Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke and W B Yeats are just some of the poets whose work is featured in this anthology. The raw emotion unleashed in these poems still has the power to move readers today. As well as poems detailing the miseries of war there are poems on themes of bravery, friendship and loyalty, and this collection shows how even in the depths of despair the human spirit can still triumph.