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Poets of World War II

120 poems about World War II by 62 American poets More

Edited by Harvey Shapiro

Overview
News & Views
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

News New animated film honors Edward Field, WWII veteran and a hero on several fronts
November 12, 2019

News Documentary GI Jews lends new texture to the American World War II saga
April 11, 2018

Interviews Lawrence Rosenwald: War No More demonstrates “remarkable vitality and diversity” of American antiwar writing
May 17, 2016

This anthology brings together 120 poems about World War II by 62 American poets, chosen, as editor Harvey Shapiro writes in his introduction, “with a purpose: to demonstrate that the American poets of this war produced a body of work that has not yet been recognized for its clean and powerful eloquence.” The poets are generally unsentimental, ironic, and often astonished by what they have experienced, and their insights still have the power to shake up our perceptions of that war and of war in general.

Most of the poets included in the volume served in the armed forces; some—Louis Simpson, Anthony Hecht, Kenneth Koch—saw combat in the infantry, while others—James Dickey, Howard Nemerov, Richard Hugo, John Ciardi—fought in the air. Also included: poets who experienced the war as civilians, including Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, and Conrad Aiken; poems by conscientious objectors and draft resisters, including William Stafford and Robert Lowell; and an elegy by James Tate for his father, who was killed in action when Tate was an infant.

Harvey Shapiro (1924–2013) flew 35 missions as an Air Force radio gunner during World War II and was decorated for his service. He was editor of The New York Times Book Review, and his many books of poetry include National Cold Storage Company (1988), Selected Poems (1997), and How Charlie Shavers Died and Other Poems (2001).

About the American Poets Project
Elegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.
News & Views

News New animated film honors Edward Field, WWII veteran and a hero on several fronts
November 12, 2019

News Documentary GI Jews lends new texture to the American World War II saga
April 11, 2018

Interviews Lawrence Rosenwald: War No More demonstrates “remarkable vitality and diversity” of American antiwar writing
May 17, 2016

News Remembering James Tate, 1943–2015: “I love my funny poems, but I’d rather break your heart”
November 13, 2015
Table of Contents

Introduction by Harvey Shapiro

Witter Bynner (1881–1968) | Defeat
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) | from Canto LXXXIII
H. D. (1886–1961) | R.A.F.
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) | Pearl Harbor | The Bloody Sire
Marianne Moore (1887–1972) | “Keeping Their World Large”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) | Three Star Final
Charles Reznikoff (1894–1976) | from By the Well of Living and Seeing
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) | “When he was small, when he would fall”
Allen Tate (1899–1979) | Ode to Our Young Pro-consuls of the Air
Yvor Winters (1900–1968) | To a Military Rifle | Moonlight Alert | Night of Battle
Eve Triem (1902–1992) | The Witness
Richard Eberhart (1992–2003) | The Fury of Aerial Bombardment | A Ceremony by the Sea | from Aesthetics After War: Instruments
Louis Zukofsky (1904–1978) | from A Song for the Year’s End
Stanley Kunitz (1905–2006) | Reflection by a Mailbox | Careless Love
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) | September 1, 1939
Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996) | Snatch | Patton | Rank | P.O.E.
George Oppen (1908–1984) | Survival: Infantry | Of Being Numerous
Charles E. Butler (1909–1981) | Rifle Range: Louisiana
Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985) | Pacific | Amphibians
Winfield Townley Scott (1910–1968) | Three American Women and a German Bayonet
Ben Belitt (1911–2003) | The Spool
Alfred Hayes (1911–1985) | The City of Beggars
Hyam Plutzik (1911–1962) | The Airman Who Flew Over Shakespeare’s England
William Everson (1912–1994) | The Raid
Woody Guthrie (1912–1967) | The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
May Sarton (1912–1995) | Navigator
John Frederick Nims (1913–1999) | Shot Down at Night
Karl Shapiro (1913–2000) | Scyros | Troop Train | Full Moon: New Guinea | Lord, I Have Seen Too Much | Homecoming
John Berryman (1914–1972) | The Moon and the Night and the Men
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) | Eighth Air Force | The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner | Transient Barracks | O My Name It Is Sam Hall | A Camp in the Prussian Forest
Weldon Kees (1914–1955) | June 1940 | The City as Hero
William Stafford (1914–1997) | At the Grave of My Brother: Bomber Pilot | Explaining the Big One | Some Remarks When Richard Hugo Came | Men
Edward R. Weismiller (1915–2010) | To the Woman in Bond Street Station
John Ciardi (1916–1986) | Song | Elegy Just in Case | V-J Day | A Box Comes Home | Elegy for a Cove Full of Bones
Thomas McGrath (1916–1990) | Homecoming | Remembering That Island
Peter Viereck (1916–2006) | Kilroy | “Vale” from Carthage | Ripeness Is All
Peter Bowman (1917–1985) | from Beach Red
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) | Negro Hero
Robert Lowell (1917–1977) | On the Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception: 1942 | The Bomber | Memories of West Street and Lepke
William Bronk (1918–1999) | Soldiers in Death | Memorial
William Jay Smith (1918–2015) | Epithalamium in Olive Drab | Pidgin Pinch | Columbus Circle Swing
Robert Duncan (1919–1988) | A Spring Memorandum: Fort Knox
William Meredith (1919–2007) | Navy Field | Love Letter from an Impossible Land | Simile
Ann Darr (1920–2007) | Flight as a Way of Life
Howard Nemerov (1920–1991) | A Fable of the War | A Memory of the War | Night Operations, Coastal Command RAF | The War in the Air | IFF
Hayden Carruth (1921–2008) | On a Certain Engagement South of Seoul
John Pauker (1921–1991) | Jethro Somes’ Apostrophe to His Former Comrades
Richard Wilbur (b. 1921) | Mined Country | First Snow in Alsace | Place Pigalle
James Dickey (1923–1997) | The Firebombing
Alan Dugan (1923–2003) | Memorial Service for the Invasion Beach | Where the Vacation in the Flesh Is Over | Portrait from the Infantry | Self-Exhortation on Military Themes | Stentor and Mourning
Anthony Hecht (1923–2004) | from Rites and Ceremonies: The Room | “More Light! More Light!” | Still Life
Richard Hugo (1923–1982) | Where We Crashed | Spinizzola: Quella Cantina Là | Note from Capri to Richard Ryan on the Adriatic Floor
Louis Simpson (1923–2011) | Arm in Arm | Carentan O Carentan | Memories of a Lost War | Old Soldier | On the Ledge | A Bower of Roses
Edgar Bowers (1924–2000) | The Stoic: For Laura Von Courten
Edward Field (b. 1924) | World War II
John Haines (1924–2011) | Mothball Fleet: Benicia, California
Harvey Shapiro (1924–2013) | Battle Report | War Stories
Lucien Stryk (1924–2013) | Sniper
Kenneth Koch (1925–2002) | To Carelessness | To World War Two
Samuel Menashe (1925–2011) | Beachhead
W. D. Snodgrass (1926–2009) | Ten Days Leave | Returned to Frisco, 1946
James Tate (1943–2015) | The Lost Pilot
Contributors

Conrad Aiken
W. H. Auden
Ben Belitt
John Berryman
Edgar Bowers
Peter Bowman
William Bronk
Gwendolyn Brooks
Charles E. Butler
Witter Bynner
Hayden Carruth
John Ciardi
Ann Darr
James Dickey
Alan Dugan
Robert Duncan
Richard Eberhart
William Everson
Edward Field
Robert Fitzgerald
Woody Guthrie
H. D.
John Haines
Alfred Hayes
Anthony Hecht
Richard Hugo
Randall Jarrell
Robinson Jeffers
Weldon Kees
Lincoln Kirstein
Kenneth Koch
Stanley Kunitz
Robert Lowell
Thomas McGrath
Samuel Menashe
William Meredith
Marianne Moore
Vladimir Nabokov
Howard Nemerov
John Frederick Nims
George Oppen
John Pauker
Hyam Plutzik
Ezra Pound
Charles Reznikoff
May Sarton
Winfield Townley Scott
Harvey Shapiro
Karl Shapiro
Louis Simpson
William Jay Smith
W. D. Snodgrass
William Stafford
Lucien Stryk
Allen Tate
James Tate
Eve Triem
Peter Viereck
Edward R. Weismiller
Richard Wilbur
Yvor Winters
Louis Zukofsky

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ISBN: 978-1-931082-33-4 296 pages

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