Review
Mass destruction,mass disease;
We thank thee, Lord, upon our knees
That we were born in times like these
Louis Macneice 'Bar-room Matins'
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Originally appeared in 2004, and great to see that a new edition was published by Faber & Feber Ltd in 2023. As with any such collections there is the question of who is deemed qualified to write World War 2 poetry? And how does an editor select a poem to be included in this anthology? Hugh Haughton has adopted a similar but not identical approach to that taken by Desmond Graham whose Poetry of the Second World War -An International Anthology appeared in 1997 : Whilst Desmond Graham would only consider the poetry written by those lived through World War 2 as adults, Hugh Haughton has extended this remit to allow a few poets who were children during when war broke out, such as Tony Harrison ( born 1937) and Derek Mahon (born 1941). In other words, the contributors had to have a memory of the War.
The vexed question of whether or not poetry can be a fitting medium for dealing with something so vast and devastating as World War 2 looms. Certainly Dylan Thomas had his doubts of the effectiveness of poetry in his harrowing 'Refusal to Mourn the Death by Fire, of a Child in London' ,declining to 'blaspheme down the stations of the breath, With any further, Elegy of innocence and youth. And at the start of the War , Stevie Smith in her poem 'The Poets are Silent' declared And I say it is to the poets' merit/ To be silent about the war.
Yet this collection shows how poetry was used as a powerful channel of expression during this conflict. World War 2 Poets are not really as important in shaping our views of the conflict in the same way that the Soldier Poets of the Great War achieved. But their work can hit home. For example, Keith Douglas's poem 'Vergissmeinnicht', ('forget me not') where the poet, fighting in the North African campaign, discovers amongst the debris in a shell hit German tank, the body of a dead soldier and his scattered possessions : the dishonoured picture of his girl/who has put: Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht/ in a copybook gothic script. Or Tadeus Rozewicz's poem 'Pigtail'. about the discarded hair of women and girls having their head shaved before being gassed at Auschwitz, and finding a faded plait/ a pigtail with a ribbon/pulled at school/by naughty boys. The poems depict images which sum up the pathos of War.
And sometimes the poems develop beyond witness accounts. To take Leon Zdzislaw Stroinski's poem 'Warsaw',setting a scene which nearly becomes a slice of magic realism.
In its shade at dawn caretakers come out with huge frayed brooms to sweep up the tears which have collected during the night and lie thickly in the streets.
Or World War 1 serving soldier Herbert Read's 'To a Conscript of 1940'
A soldier passed me in the freshly fallen snow
His footsteps muffled,his face unearthly grey';
And my heart gave a sudden leap
As I gazed on a ghost of -five-and twenty years ago.
Three poems are included Nelly Sachs, a Jewish poet living in Germany who was already listed for deportation to the Camps. who managed to obtain Swedish citizenship and leave on the last plane to Stockholm in 1943, but wrestled with survivors's guilt. More famous poets who were in exile during World War 2 such as W.H.Auden and Bertold Brecht get their place. Poems by Primo Levi and Paul Celan who saw the Camps, were freed, but took their lives afterwards, also appear. The nationalities represented include Japan, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, USA, France, Italy and Scottish Gaelic speakers.
Personally I would like to have seen Vera Brittain's 'Lament to Cologne' -her protest against saturation bombing- included, and more than one poem by Alan Ross. Also hard to envisage a World War 2 poetry anthology without Vernon Scannell, a serving soldier who saw the North African and Normandy campaigns, who absconded a few times when in uniform. But these are simply my own preferences.
Due to the huge amount of work included in this anthology, it is hard to draw any generic conclusions about World War 2 poetry contained therein. There is little triumphalism or romantic heroism, neither are there pleas for negotiations to end the War. Moreover, German poets such as Huchel and Bobrowski from the Eastern Front, who both became Soviet Prisoners of War, and rehabilitated into becoming DDR citizens, have poems featured here.There is a sense of shared human experience. And certainly this anthology shows that World War 2 poetry still holds great potential. Doesn't fade with age. The final word should go to Scottish poet Donald Bane in his poem 'War Poet'
We in our haste only see the small components of the scene
We cannot tell what incidents will focus on the final screen
A barrage of disruptive sound, a petal on a sleeping face,
Both must be noted, both have their place
Note : All poems quoted in this post are published within the above anthology
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Bleak Chesney Wold 19th century history & literature blog
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