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 

Second World War Poems -Chosen by Hugh Haughton -Revised Edition

                                                               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'

                                            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 

Other blogs :

Bleak Chesney Wold   19th century history & literature blog

A Burnt Ship                17th century history warfare & literature blog 

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

War Poets Review article by Michael Bully ' Lynette Roberts and the Second World War'.