Poetry of the World Wars

Michael Foss was born in India in 1937 and educated in England and America. He has travelled widely and, after a spell as a lecturer at an American university, he settled in London and took up writing full time. His books include Out of India, The Road Taken, Looking for the Last Big Tree, Tudor Lives, The Founding of the Jesuits, Undreamed Shores, On Tour: The British Traveller in Europe, Poetry of the World Wars, Gods and Heroes: The Story of Greek Mythology, The World of Camelot, Celtic Myths and Legends and People of the First Crusade. He won the J. R. Ackerley prize for Out of India in 2002.

A Funeral Oration by Drummond Allison
Death Is A Matter Of Mathematics. by Barry Amiel
To My Mother by George Barker
Reported Missing by John Clifford Bayliss
In The Dordogne by John Peale Bishop
1914: 5. The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
At The British War Cemetery, Bayeux by Charles Causley
Conversation In Gibraltar, 1943 by Charles Causley
Song Of The Dying Gunner A. A. 1 by Charles Causley
For A War Memorial by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Two: 3 by Edward Estlin Cummings
W (viva): 30 by Edward Estlin Cummings
Burial Flags by Ralph Nixon Currey
Unseen Fire by Ralph Nixon Currey
Reconciliation by Cecil Day Lewis
North Sea by Jeffery Day
Motley by Walter John De La Mare
Cairo Jag by Keith Castellaine Douglas
Enfidaville by Keith Castellaine Douglas
How To Kill by Keith Castellaine Douglas
The Offensive, Sels. by Keith Castellaine Douglas
Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Castellaine Douglas
Dam Neck, Virginia by Richard Ghormley Eberhart
The Fury Of Aerial Bombardment by Richard Ghormley Eberhart
Rumors Of Liberation. We Could Not Believe It by Richard Ghormley Eberhart
The Bofors Aa Gun by Gavin Ewart
The Forest Of The Dead by James Griffyth Fairfax
That Exploit Of Yours by Ford Madox Ford
Lament by George Sutherland Fraser
Rostov by George Sutherland Fraser
Autumn 1942 by Roy Fuller
In Africa by Roy Fuller
The Middle Of A War by Roy Fuller
What Is Terrible by Roy Fuller
Miserere: De Profundis by David Gascoyne
Sonnet: The Uncertain Battle by David Gascoyne
Dead Cow Farm by Robert Ranke Graves
Recalling War by Robert Ranke Graves
The Silent One by Ivor Gurney
To His Love by Ivor Gurney
The Enemy Dead by Bernard H. Gutteridge
In September 1939 by Bernard H. Gutteridge
Shillong by Bernard H. Gutteridge
Channel Firing by Thomas Hardy
In Time Of 'the Breaking Of Nations' by Thomas Hardy
Men Who March Away (1) by Thomas Hardy
Night Raid by Desmond Hawkins
End Of A Campaign by Hamish Henderson
We Show You That Death As A Dancer by Hamish Henderson
The General Inspecting The Trenches. by Alan Patrick Herbert
Epitaph On An Army Of Mercenaries by Alfred Edward Housman
Six Young Men by Edward James Hughes
Embarkation, 1942 by John Jarmain
A Camp In The Prussian Forest by Randall Jarrell
The Dead Wingman by Randall Jarrell
The Death Of The Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell
Eighth Air Force by Randall Jarrell
A Front by Randall Jarrell
A Pilot From The Carrier by Randall Jarrell
The Range In The Desert by Randall Jarrell
1. by Sidney Keyes
Advice For A Journey by Sidney Keyes
Europe's Prisoners by Sidney Keyes
The Expected Guest by Sidney Keyes
War Poet by Sidney Keyes
A Dead Statesman; Epitaph Of The War, 1914-18 by Rudyard Kipling
A Death-bed by Rudyard Kipling
A Drifter Off Tarentum; Epitaph Of The War, 1914-1918 by Rudyard Kipling
Mesopotamia by Rudyard Kipling
R.a.f. (aged Eighteen) by Rudyard Kipling
Unknown Female Corpse by Rudyard Kipling
Foresight by Lincoln Kirstein
Gripe by Lincoln Kirstein
P.o.e. by Lincoln Kirstein
Tommies In The Train by David Herbert Lawrence
Autumn, 1939 by Alun Lewis
Christmas Holiday by Alun L --Adrian Forman

The Great War of 1914-18 and the Second World War of 1939-45, told in the words of some of the most immediate and moving poetry in the language - a tribute to the triumph of the human spirit over the desolation and waste of war. This collection includes many of the most famous works by the leading war poets, but also lesser-known verse by soldier (and sailor and airman) poets, as well as those by civilians. Featuring works by Sassoon, Owen, Rosenberg, Edward Thomas, Sidney Keyes and others - and those less well known for such verse, among them Hardy, Kipling, Chesterton, D. H. Lawrence, Housman and Ezra Pound. This wide-ranging anthology presents a portrait of a nation and its allies engaged in the greatest catastrophes in human history. From the hellish visions and overwhelming grief of early writers, to the more private and personal reflections of the poets of the Second World War, this collection is a eulogy to them all. --Larry Petersen

YA-- An emotionally charged collection that makes readers aware of the decisions that world leaders have to make and lets them feel the impact of these decisions on young people, families, and countries. Ted Hughes's "Six Young Men" is a touching look at the personal effects of war. They will also experience its chilling simplicity in poems such as Keith Douglas's "How to Kill." These thought-provoking poems provide the human side of the historical and current events studied in school and will help students understand the tremendous changes that war brings ---Bob Ingalls, Mount Vernon High School, Alexandria, VA