Keith Douglas (1920-1944)

                                                 How Easy it is to Make a Ghost 

                                  

                       There has been a request to share some thoughts about Keith Douglas, This blog has probably neglected Douglas simply because he is one of the few figures from his generation whose talents as a poet, war illustrator and prose writer have been recognised. Douglas served in North Africa and Palestine from August 1941,  was wounded in action in January 1943, Whilst recuperating, Douglas returned to writing poetry ; he was already an accomplished and published poet from his days at Oxford University. Douglas continued his service in Egypt and Tunisia, and his regiment, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, came back to England at the end of the year. Douglas was killed in action in Normandy on the 9th June 1944, leaving behind an extensive body of high quality work. 

Douglas entered Merton College via a scholarship to read English in 1938. He was fortunate enough to have World War 1 poet Edmund Blunden as a tutor. Douglas submitted poetry for publication whilst a student, also did some literary editing including a spell as editor of  the Oxford student publication The Cherwell.

 Douglas's  work often drew on his own premonition that he would not survive the conflict. As well as obvious clues such as the title of his poem simplify me when I am dead,he left behind a war memoir titled  Alamein to Zem Zem, largely about his experience serving as a tank captain during the North Africa campaign. By comparison, the World War 1 memoirs written by the poets who served such as Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Richard Aldington, et al were written years after they had left the Forces. Douglas did not live long enough to see his memoir published in 1946, the original included 16 poems as an appendix. 

In 1951 The Collected Poems of Keith Douglas was appeared, edited by two fellow poets John Waller and G.S.Fraser : They acknowledged that Douglas's work had been published in such collections as Eight Oxford Poets, The Voice of Poetry, 1930-1939, More Poems from the Forces, and noticeable magazines as Poetry London  and The Times Literary Supplement. Douglas had submitted poems to T.S.Elliott, Blunden also sent in poems on his behalf but Elliott did not go on to publish him.GRAHAM

Keith Douglas's work received little attention in the 1950's.There is the famous account of how Douglas's mother donated six copies of Douglas's Collected Poems to her local bookshop. In 1961 she visited said shop and found that they were all there on the shelves, unsold. SHEERS

A breakthrough occurred when Ted Hughes agreed to write an introduction to Keith Douglas Complete Poems  in 1963. Hughes considered Douglas to be the 'greatest poet of World War 2', Sylvia Plath also rated his work highly. Both Plath and Hughes took to the poem The Sea Bird. BATE Interesting choice as they recognised Douglas's talents lay beyond the War Poetry genre. 

Alamein to Zem Zem was re-published in 1966 and Douglas's work was in featured in World War 2 poetry anthologies. Desmond Graham's landmark Keith Douglas 1920-1944 A Biography was published in 1974

In the 21st Century Keith Douglas's poetry began to be held in higher esteem. A new advocate for his work emerged with the poet, playwright,and novelist Owen Sheers (born 1974) . BBC Four commemorated Remembrance Day with the screening of a one hour documentary Battlefield Poet Keith Douglas presented by Owen Sheers in 2010. In 2018 ,Owen Sheers's play about Douglas, Unicorns, Almost, based largely on Alamein to Zem Zem ,opened at the Hay Book Festival, and the text was published by Faber & Faber. In 2014, terminally ill media presenter and author Clive James read Keith Douglas's poem Canoe on television and cried . Professor Tim Kendall in his introduction to Poetry of the Second World War, (2024) stated that Douglas was his favourite 'soldier-poet' of the conflict. KENDALL

HOW TO KILL (extract) 

"Death, like a familiar,hears

and look, has made a man of dust
of a man of flesh. This sorcery
I do. Being damned, I am amused
to see the centre of love diffused
and the waves of love travel into vacancy,
How easy it is to make a ghost.

The weightless mosquito touches

her tiny shadow on the stone,

and with how like, how infinite

a lightness, man and shadow meet.

They fuse. A shadow is a man

when the mosquito death approaches." 

( Tunisia and Cairo ,1943)

 Douglas's poem Vergissmeinicht shows pity to a dead German solider who shortly before had tried to destroy the tank he was in. 

VERGISSMEINICHT  ('Forget me not '-extract) 

"Look.Here in the gunpit spoil
the dishonoured picture of his girl
who has put: Steffi.Vergissmeinicht
in a copybook gothic script.......

But she would weep to see today

how on his skin the swart flies move;
the dust upon the paper eye
and the burst stomach like a cave ."

(Homs,Tripolitania,1943)

The contrast between the dead German lying on the sand and the photo of his girlfriend is tragic. Showing how War has crushed their affair.  One observation made about 'Desert War' poetry is that soldiers on both sides were fighting in quite strange, perhaps alien, landscapes. One in which civilian casualties were far less compared with many other theatres of war. Perhaps it was easy to feel an affinity with a foe in these circumstances,

The refusal to hate the enemy was noticeable when  Douglas was still a student at Oxford. Whilst at the cinema Douglas was furious when an audience cheered as a newsreel showed a messerschmitt being shot down in flames, and shouted 'You Shits' over and over again  until he was ejected from the building. GRAHAM.

The poem Aristocrats displayed a certain reverence towards Douglas felt towards to the soldier under his command. 

ARISTOCRATS (extract) 

"Peter was unfortunately killed by an 88:
it took his leg away, he died in the ambulance.
I saw him crawling on the sand; he said
It's most unfair, they've shot my foot off

How can I live among this gentle 
obsolescent breed of heroes, and not weep?
Unicorns, almost,

for they are falling into two legends
in which their stupidity and chivalry
are celebrated. Each, fool and hero, will be an
        immortal. "

( Enfidaville, Tunisia,1943)

The first lines- verse two of the poem- reminds one of Siegfried Sassoon's ironic poem They  which satirised how soldiers losing limbs was being overlooked as the true cost of war. Yet the following lines quoted above -verse three of the poem- suggests the opposite. Keith Douglas was finding meaning and purpose in fighting. 

One poem Cairo Jag from 1943 suggests visits to prostitutes 

CAIRO JAG  (extract) 

"Shall I get drunk, or cut myself a piece of cake,
a pasty Syrian with a few words of English
or the Turk who says she is a princess-she dances 
apparently by levitation? Or Marcelle, Parisienne 
always preoccupied with her dull dead lover...."

Such a poem about the pleasures of a soldier on leave were unlikely to have emerged from World War 1 poetry. Showing the influence of modernism on World War 2 poetry. The poet is reporting on the choices before him. He is neither the ideal soldier-warrior, or a daring truth teller trying to educate naive civilians on what War is really like. 

Ultimately so much evidence  points to the fact that Keith Douglas combined the life of a soldier with his talents as a poet, illustrator and writer up to his own death. Lack of self pity, melodrama, jingoism, little glorification of War appears in his writing. It is understandable why his life and work are so venerated. 

A further blogpost looking at Alamein to Zem Zem, will be published in the near future. 

Sources 

Books

Poems taken from Keith Douglas-The Complete Poems,edited by John WALLER/ G.S.FRASER ,Editions Poetry Limited, 1951

Other works

Ted Hughes- The Unauthorised Life   Jonathan BATE, William Collins, 2015

Keith Douglas 1920-1944 A biography , Desmond GRAHAM, Oxford University Press 1974

Keith Douglas-The Complete Poems, Introduction by Ted HUGHES, Oxford Poets, 1978 /1998 edition.

Poetry of the Second World War -edited with notes by Tim KENDALL Oxford University Press, Oxford University Press, 2024

Not Without Glory-Poets of the Second World War Vernon SCANNELL, Woburn Press, 1976

Unicorns, Almost   ( Text of play with an introduction) Owen SHEERS, The Story of Books, 2018 

Youtube 

Keith Douglas Battlefield Poet  presented by Owen Sheers, 2010,  last accessed on 28 September 2025 

Other Blogs by Michael Bully 

A Burnt Ship  17th century War & Literature,currently being revived. 

Bleak Chesney Wold  19th century 'dark' history 

Picture Credit : Grave of war poet Keith Douglas at Tilly-sur-Seulles CWGC War Cemetery (14 km south of Bayeux). Plot 1, row E, grave number 2  Courtesy of Romain Bréget  , owner of the image, available via Creative Commons. 

World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel 

World War 2 Poetry blog welcomes the new War Poetry Review website run by the War Poets Association 

Thank you to all visitors to the blog from all over the world. Your interest is so appreciated. 

Michael Bully 

Worthing 
West Sussex 
29th September  2025 

As ever, any errors or schoolboy howlers in the above post are my responsibility and not be attributed to any source that I have cited or listed. 

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' When they Cut The Ready Wheat '

                        Poetry by  Herbert Corby  and Mary Désiréé  Anderson 

                                 Defence of Albion (1942) Paul Nash , collection of the Imperial War Museum, London.

It's always a pleasure to find lesser known poetry from World War 2. Selecting two recent finds, both dealing with an almost Pagan view of the crops that are being cut relating to the sudden end to human life in wartime. Such death is not viewed as a martyrdom or a heroic fate, simply part of the natural order.  And both writers survived World War 2 .

'Missing'    Herbert Corby 

They told me, when they cut the ready wheat
the hares are suddenly homeless and afraid,
and aimless run the stubble with scare feet
finding no homes in sunlight or shade,

..It's morning, and the Hampdens have returned,
the crews are homes, have stretched and laughed and gone;
when the planes came  and bright neon burned
the sun has ridden the sky and made the dawn,

He walks distraught, circling the landing grounds
waiting the last one in that won't come back,
and like those hares, he wanders round and round,
lost and desolate on the close-cropped ground. 

Herbert Corby/ Herbert W Corby, (born 1911)  had two poems published in magazines in 1937, and others in an anthology titled Best Poems of 1942. In 1945 his collection Hampdens Going Over, featuring some 53 poems about his service in the RAF as an armourer, then an instructor .The hampdens were the twin engine medium bombers used a great deal by the RAF. Another collection of Corby's poems, Time in a Blue Prison, appeared in 1947. Seems that he joined the Foreign Office after war service. Not sure of his date of death but his last collection of poetry was published in 1971. 'Missing' is most likely based on Corby's own experiences. Although the poem is written in the third person, it is most likely that Corby himself was confronted with the loss of pilots that he had trained during his RAF service. A similar poem by Corby is 'Lost', which ends with the lines

"Their lives are ended, but dreams are not yet lost
if you remember in your laugh and song
these boys who do not sing and laughed not long." 

Both 'Missing' and 'Lost' have been lifted from The Terrible Rain The War Poets 1939-1945 An Anthology -selected, arranged, and introduced by Brian Gardner (Methuen,1966)

'Harvest'  -Mary Désiréé Anderson

"In open country the September fields
Now face the death of harvest, and their power
Through ruthless loss redouble their ability,
But here, the blackened dust of London shields,
with artificial pomp of bedded flowers,
The helpless shame of its outworn sterility,

There death is rich in promised life, but here, 
When our bright masqueraders freeze and sicken,
We have no power to give them fresh fertility,
Thus, through the smiling scorn of this dread year,
We stand inert and see our comrades stricken
Our hands unarmed, ashamed of out futility,

We watch afar and mark the hideous pace
At which the Reaper moves, like corn our pride
Bows its plumed head to dark  humility,
Nor have we vision to discern some place
Where, from the furrowed grave of hopes that died,
Point the bright blades of immortality. "

Mary Désiréé Anderson (1902- 1973) , sometimes published as Mary D Anderson, was better known as a specialist in Medieval carving and Christian iconography. Was married to Sir Trenchard Cox, who knew her as Maisie.Was the author of several books on Medieval subjects  most notably History and Imagery in British Churches which was re-published in 1995. Lived in London throughout the War, and her book British Women At War  was published in 1941.  'Harvest' first appeared in what appears to be the only collection of her poetry -Bow Bells Are Silent- from 1943. 

Anderson's poem is contrasts how frail all life is, helpless at the 'hideous pace' of wartime death. It is highly possible that the poem dates from 1940, the "dread year"which saw the rapid collapse of many European countries that Spring and Summer. And the understandable fear of German invasion. Probably a little too harrowing to be published at the time. Anne Powell's anthology Shadows of War- British Women's Poetry of the Second World War' contains three poems written by Mary Désiréé Anderson about 1940, taking in Dunkirk, the Blitz and war time classical music concerts at the National Gallery. All were to emerge later in Bow Bells Are Silent.

'Harvest' is taken from Chaos of the Night-Women's Poetry & Verse of the Second World War Selected by Catherine Reilly. (Virago Press, 1984). 

ENDS

As ever, appreciate all the visitors to this Blog from all around the world. 

Michael Bully

Brighton 

11th July 2025 

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Contact: Michael Bully     World War 2 Poetry@mail.com   ( please ram words together without spaces) 

World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel 

VE Day 80th Anniversary

                                         Poem After War -Henry Treece 

                         

 Not sure how to mark this anniversary, but thought a short poem would be appropriate. It is worth recalling that as well as VE Day being a day of celebration for many people, there were those who fought and did not feel like joining the party. 

 Poem After War -Henry Treece ( from The Haunted Garden, collection of poetry published 1947)

" Fearful that summer will forget the frost
And boys the body broken on a stake,
We stand. And who shall blame us if we take
The sword again to bring to life the past?
Future can only live by death of fears,
By love as effortless as lilt of birds;
To learn such love , and hear such flaming words 
Our dead would wait another thousand years."

Henry Treece found the night of VE Day difficult :

" As I walk on, I cannot help thinking that before the Japanese are defeated, war will have taken perhaps eight years of my life. May I can just afford to lose eight years; there are many thousands who can't though. As I turn into my road, I pass a soldier staggering along with his girl. She is wearing a comical coloured hat, bearing the words; YOU'VE HAD IT, BIG BOY! I can't feeling how very true these words are for so many of us ." HEWISON 

Born 1911, Henry Treece served  RAF Intelligence  in World War 2, and was associated with the New Apocalypse poets of the 1940's, who became one of the most maligned and unpopular posse of published poets by the mid 1950's onward. They were devotees of Dylan Thomas, though Thomas himself largely kept his distance. The group name was taken from D H Lawrence's work Apocalypse and the Writings on Revelation, written in 1929-1930, whilst the writings of Freud and the art of the Surrealists were influences. The emphasis was very much on the Poet as an individual creating their own myth, disconnected from social reality. 

The Haunted Garden from 1947 is quite a bleak collection.Been out of print for ages. There is a great sense of mourning in many poems, and an absence of triumphalism or even celebration that the War was over.  In Poem After War  there is a feeling of that the sword will be picked up again, conflict would re-emerge, unless something radically changes in the condition of humanity.  

There is an attempt to recreate Civil War poet Richard Lovelace's poem Song to Lucasta Going to the Warres (sic) . Lovelace was on the defeated Royalist side. Treece's poem To Lucasta while at the Wars  is one of the weaker offerings in The Haunted Garden . An untitled poem which follows from this collection is now usually referred to by its first line  Who murdered the Minutes , also dealing with lost time. 

" Who murdered the minutes,

The bright golden minutes, the minutes of youth;

I,said the Soldier dressed in his red coat,

I with my trumpet, my sword and my flag.... " 

            This poem was set to music for Joan Baez's album 'Baptism Journey through Our Time ' in 1968 , released at the height of the anti-Vietnam War protests. ('Baptism' also included Baez's take on Henry Treece's quite enchanting poems The Magic Wood, Oh,Little Child,  and a very chilling recital of Wilfred Owen's Parable of the Old Man and the Young) 

Henry Treece became less of a published poet, a school teacher, and a prolific writer of historical novel for children until his death in 1966. He is now most remembered for the latter. Sadly his contributions to compiling anthologies of poetry and short stories such as the Transformations  ( with Stefan Schiminski ) annually 1943-1947)  series, and Air Force Poetry ( with John Pudney 1944) are often overlooked. 

Picture Credit : 

Somerset Place, Bath 1942,  John Piper , Courtesy of The Tate , in the public domain.

More information

Books

'Under Siege- Literary Life in London 1939-1945' Robert HEWISON, Wiedenfield & Nicolson, 1978

'The Haunted Gardens' , Henry TREECE , Faber & Faber 1947

Youtube

Who Murdered The Minutes   Joan Baez's version of Henry Treece's poem, from 'Baptism' 1968

Previous Post 

Air Raid  Poem by Henry Treece, post from this blog in 2016 

World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel 

Review : 'Poetry of the Second World War' An Anthology

                                     Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Tim Kendall 
                                     Oxford University Press ( hardback) 2024          

                          

                    Tim Kendall is a Professor of English at the University of Exeter. His publications include Modern English War Poetry (2006), Poetry of the First World War (2013) and he is also co-editing a five volume Complete Literary Work of Ivor Gurney for publication. Thought that it was time to review this anthology after hearing Tim Kendall give a talk about World War 2 poetry at the London Archives, Northampton Road,London, on 5th March 2025. 

The above anthology features work by British poets who lived through World War 2 and were writing poetry or wrote poetry about the conflict in the post war-years.The eldest poet included-Frances Cornford- was born in 1886, the youngest -Karen Gershon-1923.The featured poets did not have to be serving in the Forces but the War had to be within their living memory. 

Tim Kendall's vast literary knowledge makes the book introduction a valuable asset to our understanding of World War 2 poetry. Poets are introduced by a page or so of biography and the footnotes interpreting the selected poems are superb :In fact I thought that I was very familiar with Keith Douglas's Vergissmeinnicht. After reading and hearing Tim Kendall's view of this poem, realised that I had missed so much. This ability to find so many different angles to approach these poems makes the anthology helpful for those exploring the subject for the first time and for people already involved in the genre. There is also a bibliography, and a chronology of the War Years. Both are of practical use for students of World War 2 poetry. 

The introduction highlights the issues surrounding new poets in 1939, already somewhat overshadowed by the legacy of the Soldier Poets of World War 1. Existing publishers were not always encouraging, neither were some existing poets. 'Where Are the War Poets?' was asked by sections of the media in 1939-1940.  Cyril Connolly's esteemed literary magazine, Horizon, was  initially not featuring work by new poets or about the War.Was War Poetry even needed as a specific genre, after the World War 1 soldier poets such as Owen, Sassoon, Graves, et al had used poetry as a medium (along with literary memoir) to inform the civilian population of the 'Pity of War'? However, Edmund Blunden supported his former student Keith Douglas, whilst Robert Graves backed Alun Lewis . 

Out of the 1930's poets, Stephen Spender was hoping for poetry to explore social reform. W H Auden fled to the USA, though his poem '1st  September 1939',to the best of my knowledge, is the only World War 2 related poem to have a whole book devoted to its text and background. (1st  September 1939-A Biography of a Poem, by Ian Sansom, 2019).Could also add Stevie Smith and Dylan Thomas's earliest concerns that poetry was not a suitable literary form to tackle the sheer enormity of World War 2.

Professor Kendall's emphasis is on World War 2 Poetry as a genre evolved via the Desert War /North Africa campaign and the Blitz. His view is that the quality of writing  from the Desert War of  June 1940- May 1943, the only British Army land  campaign from June 1940- May 1943,"bears comparison with anything from the Somme"; Keith Douglas, Sorley Maclean, Hamish Henderson, Robert Garioch,and John Jarmain, are cited in this respect. There was conscious effort by ex-pats such as C.S.Fraser and Lawrence Durrell to create a cultural scene in Cairo and Alexandria. ( I would also add the work of the Oasis and the Salamander Trusts ,which later merged into one organisation, in this field). Serving men were encouraged to write poetry and prose. It is not surprising that Keith Douglas has 13 poems featured in the anthology. The North Africa campaign was very much a conflict between armies in fairly desolate areas without mass civilian casualties, apart from the city of Tobruk.  

By contrast, Professor Kendall's counts the Blitz poems related poetry as equally important, also showing that the suffering of civilians due to mass aerial bombing created a new strand of war poetry : "The Soldier no longer possessed a special knowledge denied to ordinary civilians." Impressive poetry by Elizabeth Bowen, Edith Sitwell,Ruth Pitter, Dylan Thomas, Stevie Smith, is acknowledged in this respect, along with Stephen Spender's poem about the bombing of Plymouth'-The Air Raid Across The Bay'. Also the work of E.J. Scovell, living in Oxford during the War, aware that the city had been spared bombing. 

The Italian campaign and the War at Sea are less significant to Tim Kendall's view, though he rates Charles Causely as the most important poet from the Navy and his work does appear in the anthology. He considers that Dunkirk, and the 'race to Berlin' did not yield any noticeable poetry.* The Normandy landings saw the death of Keith Douglas and John Jermain but this wave of fighting is not generally  associated with war poetry in Tim Kendall's perspective: Though as a poet, has written 'For The War Dead of Normandy' and 'At Keith Douglas's Grave' in his collection Strange Land from 2005. (Personally would add that the poem 'Walking Wounded' and 'The Argument of Kings' war memoir, both by Vernon Scannell who served and wounded in Normandy 1944 are some of the best World War 2 writing I have come across.)

Alun Lewis who died in mysterious circumstances during the Burma Campaign,has poems included. Louis Macneice, too weak to serve in uniform has an extract of his classic eve of war poem-'Autumn Journal' featured. T.S Eliot gets one contribution- an extract from 'Little Gidding'. A surprising entry are Noel Coward's lyrics to 'Don't Be Beastly to the Germans'. 

 Some lines from  Cecil Day Lewis's 'Where Are The War Poets' are quoted on the back cover of the anthology, amongst the seven of his poems that are added:

"It is the logic of our times, 
No subject for Immortal verse
That we who lived by honest dreams
Defend the bad against the worse."

The notion of having to 'defend the bad against the worse' suggests that many World War 2 poets were not pro-Establishment as such but realised that the threat of Nazism was more frightening. Indeed,Vernon Scannell was a serial absconder whilst in uniform. Keidrych Rhys went AWOL for personal reasons, but it is a step too far to count them as being ideologically opposed to Britain taking part in the conflict.Pacifist writer Vera Brittain's 'Lament for Cologne' is an exception, (not included in this anthology). Douglas Young, Scottish Nationalist poet, was a conscientious objector and served two terms in prison for his stance, was atypical. Pacifist poetry by Alex Comfort, who had a good natured literary clash or two with George Orwell about the War, was marginalised. 

My initial gripe with this anthology was that some of my favourite poets, Vernon Scannell,Lynette Roberts, Alan Ross, Keidrych Rhys, have no work included. But on the other hand, I have begun to appreciate the work of Stephen Spender, and Alun Lewis after purchasing the anthology, and want to seek out poetry by  Ruth Pitter, Anne Ridler and Hamish Henderson after reading Tim Kendall's views of their work. 

Over time, this anthology will become an essential work about World War 2 Poetry. Highly Recommended.

*Since writing this original piece, have looked against at the Poets of the Second World War-The Oasis Selection published by the Oasis Salamander Trust in 1985. Amongst the poems collected in World War 2 and in post wars years, they included three poems about Dunkirk, written by Leon Atkins, B.G.Bonallack, and Alan Rook. Bonnallack and Rook served at Dunkirk, biographical information on Atkins is not available. There is also a section titled 'Normandy to Berlin', including thirty poems by some nineteen poets. 

Michael Bully, Brighton, 22nd March 2025. 

Jason from The Channel of a Disappointed Man YouTube literature channel  has also pointed out that John Lehmanns's New Writing featured World War 2 poetry & prose during the War itself. Thank you Jason. 

Michael Bully, Brighton 24th March 2025. 

Links

Related posts from this blog :

Sassoon Re-appraised by World War 2 poets 

Scottish World War 2 Poets   (With a focus on the Desert War). 

Two Laments for Cologne  Mary E.Harrison ('My Hands') and Vera Brittain ( 'Lament for Cologne') 

Other Blogs by Michael Bully

Bleak Chesney Wold  'Dark' 19th century history & related literature.

A Burnt Ship 17th century related war & literature 

London in the Second World War  exhibition at the London Archives runs until 30th October 2025. Free entry. 

World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel 

Sean Jennett Missing Poet from Faber &Faber

                             
                                          Missing Poet from Faber &Faber    
                                       
                                               

                                                 
                                           

                                        'Shelter Experiments' John Piper 1943 
                                        IWM ART LD 3859  in public domain courtesy of the IWM/
                                       Wikipedia Commons 



     I was recently reminded of the  'Earth Voices Whispering- An anthology of Irish War Poetry 1914-1945' edited by Gerald Dawes, published in 2008 It was intriguing to find poems by Sean Jennett included, who doesn't seem to have been included in any anthologies since 'Poetry of the Forties-introduced and edited by Robin Skelton' (1968) .

Also managed to locate Jennett's collection  'Always Adam' from 1943, from the National Poetry Library, at the Southbank Centre, which contains 51 poems, written from 1935 onward.

 Sean Jennett, who worked for Faber & Faber' as a typographer during World war 2, who has been added to the ranks of 1940's 'neglected' poets. His Wikipedia entry consists of three sentences , maintaining  that he was born in 1912- and died in 1981, wrote 'The 'Making of Books ' in 1951 and went on to write travel books. The British Library online catalogue confirms this, with 'The Making of Boooks' seeing several editions.


                                        XXXVII

                            We talked of war with light and easy lips,
                            jesting upon our action, this or that,
                            if it came to the last, and while we chattered
                            we drank our coffee in delicious sips
                            and watched the soft, contented cafe cat.

                            But then the woman in the wicker chair
                            cried Havoc! and suddenly I was afire
                            because I saw, under the skirts of light,
                            the corpses of our laughter and delight
                            smashed and dismembered, bloodily bespattered
                            across the red carpet....

                                                           And still the solemn stare
                           of all the sleepy cats in Oxfordshire
                                           1937

One of the most interesting pre-war  poems about World War 2 - if such a genre is possible. The strange reflection of an unreal sedate world detached from the reality of war that is about to strike them. The motif-'Cry havoc and unleash the dogs of war'  from Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar', was repeated in Beverley Nichols book 'Cry Havoc' from 1934, advocating Pacifism, a stance Nichols was later to reject.

                                          XLII. AUTUMN 1940

                           The days were glorious- we remember that
                           because the clear September of that year
                           was good for bombers. We remember it
                           because the sky screamed and we were mere
                           items of wreckage in the ruined day,
                           the half- face or the limbless or the dead.
                           the convenient basis for the hero's fame,
                           the rescued in the hospital bed.

                           I was the man in the collapsing tower.
                           I was the body in the flooded shelter.
                           I was the mad objector shifting stone,
                          the conscious saint arising in his hour.
                          I was the bomber, the breaker and the welder
                          I was the shattered and the exulting son.
                                                                                 1942

Strange understatement -September 7th 1940 is of course accepted as the first day of the London Blitz.

                                 News                                                                                                                                                        
Best wishes for 2019 to all Blog visitors from round the world .  Have written an article on British World War 2 poetry for 'Everyone's War' , the magazine published by the Second World War Experience Centre.


I am working on a further post for the companion blog to this one A Burnt Ship -devoted to 17th century war & literature.

UPDATE 2025 

World War 2 Poetry blog supports the Second World War Experience Centre  Please consider looking at their website and the SWWEC Youtube Channel 

World War 2 Poetry blog welcomes the new War Poetry Review website run by the War Poets Association