War Poems

Poets of all times, places, and sensibilities have been moved to write about war. They have commemorated the Battles of Thermopylae, Agincourt, and Shiloh, and London in an air raid. They have announced the Charge of the Light Brigade; witnessed Break of Day in the Trenches; handed down through oral tradition, the Blackfoot Indian Song for a Fallen Warrior; sent a Newsreel from Vietnam. From Horace and Virgil to Stevie Smith, from the anonymous bards of ancient China to Adam Mickiewicz and Primo Levi, these poets have encompassed the entire spectrum of feeling—pride, compassion, courage, anger, fear, excitement, anguish, even laughter. Here, in this anthology, are more than one hundred of their most memorable poems.