Poets of World War II / Harvey Shapiro, editor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Shapiro, Harvey, 1924-2013.

Series:

American poets project

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

World War, 1939-1945--Poetry.

World War, 1939-1945.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xxxii, 262 pages : portrait ; 20 cm.

Other Title:

Poets of World War 2

Poets of World War Two

Place of Publication:

New York : Library of America, [2003]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Witter Bynner (1881-1968)

Defeat 1

/ Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

From Canto LXXXIII 2

/ H. D. (1886-1961)

R.A.F. 3

/ Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

Pearl Harbor 12

The Bloody Sire 14

/ Marianne Moore (1887-1972)

"Keeping Their World Large" 15

/ Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)

Three Star Final 17

/ Charles Reznikoff (1894-1976)

From By the Well of Living and Seeing 18

/ Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)

"When he was small, when he would fall" 20

/ Allen Tate (1899-1979)

Ode to Our Young Pro-consuls of the Air 21

/ Yvor Winters (1900-1968)

To a Military Rifle 26

Moonlight Alert 27

Night of Battle 28

/ Eve Triem (1902-1992)

The Witness 29

/ Richard Eberhart (b. 1904)

The Fury of Aerial Bombardment 31

A Ceremony by the Sea 32

from Aesthetics After War: Instruments 34

/ Louis Zukofsky (1904-1978)

from A Song for the Year's End 37

/ Stanley Kunitz (b. 1905)

Reflection by a Mailbox 39

Careless Love 40

/ W. H. Auden (1907-1973)

September 1, 1939 41

/ Lincoln Kirstein (1907-1996)

Snatch 45

Patton 46

Rank 52

P.O.E. 55

/ George Oppen (1908-1984)

Survival: Infantry 57

from Of Being Numerous 58

/ Charles E. Butler (1909-1981)

Rifle Range: Louisiana 59

/ Robert Fitzgerald (1910-1985)

Pacific 60

Amphibians 60

/ Winfield Townley Scott (1910-1968)

Three American Women and a German Bayonet 62

/ Ben Belitt (b. 1911)

The Spool 64

/ Alfred Hayes (1911-1985)

The City of Beggars 68

/ Hyam Plutzik (1911-1962)

The Airman Who Flew Over Shakespeare's England 70

/ William Everson (1912-1994)

The Raid 72

/ Woody Guthrie (1912-1967)

The Blinding of Isaac Woodard 74

/ May Sarton (1912-1995)

Navigator 77

/ John Frederick Nims (1913-1999)

Shot Down at Night 78

/ Karl Shapiro (1913-2000)

Scyros 79

Troop Train 81

Full Moon: New Guinea 82

Lord, I Have Seen Too Much 83

Homecoming 83

/ John Berryman (1914-1972)

The Moon and the Night and the Men 85

/ Randall Jarrell (1914-1965)

Eighth Air Force 87

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner 88

Transient Barracks 88

O My Name It Is Sam Hall 89

A Camp in the Prussian Forest 90

/ Weldon Kees (1914-1955)

June 1940 92

The City as Hero 93

/ William Stafford (1914-1997)

At the Grave of My Brother: Bomber Pilot 94

Explaining the Big One 94

Some Remarks When Richard Hugo Came 95

Men 96

/ Edward R. Weismiller (b. 1915)

To the Woman in Bond Street Station 97

/ John Ciardi (1916-1986)

Song 98

Elegy Just in Case 99

V-J Day 101

A Box Comes Home 102

Elegy for a Cove Full of Bones 103

/ Thomas McGrath (1916-1990)

Homecoming 105

Remembering That Island 106

/ Peter Viereck (b. 1916)

Kilroy 108

"Vale" from Carthage 110

Ripeness Is All 111

/ Peter Bowman (1917-1985)

from Beach Red 112

/ Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

Negro Hero 115

/ Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

On the Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception: 1942 118

The Bomber 119

Memories of West Street and Lepke 121

/ William Bronk (1918-1999)

Soldiers in Death 124

Memorial 125

/ William Jay Smith (b. 1918)

Epithalamium in Olive Drab 126

Pidgin Pinch 127

Columbus Circle Swing 128

/ Robert Duncan (1919-1988)

A Spring Memorandum: Fort Knox 129

/ William Meredith (b. 1919)

Navy Field 132

Love Letter from an Impossible Land 133

Simile 136

/ Ann Darr (b. 1920)

Flight as a Way of Life 138

/ Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)

A Fable of the War 139

A Memory of the War 140

Night Operations, Coastal Command RAF 141

The War in the Air 141

IFF 142

/ Hayden Carruth (b. 1921)

On a Certain Engagement South of Seoul 144

/ John Pauker (1921-1991)

Jethro Somes' Apostrophe to His Former Comrades 147

/ Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)

Mined Country 148

First Snow in Alsace 149

Place Pigalle 150

/ James Dickey (1923-1997)

The Firebombing 152

/ Alan Dugan (b. 1923)

Memorial Service for the Invasion Beach Where the Vacation in the Flesh Is Over 163

Portrait from the Infantry 164

Self-Exhortation on Military Themes 165

Stentor and Mourning 166

/ Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)

from Rites and Ceremonies: The Room 168

"More Light! More Light!" 170

Still Life 172

/ Richard Hugo (1923-1982)

Where We Crashed 174

Spinizzola: Quella Cantina La 178

Note from Capri to Richard Ryan on the Adriatic Floor 180

/ Louis Simpson (b. 1923)

Arm in Arm 182

Carentan O Carentan 183

Memories of a Lost War 185

Old Soldier 186

On the Ledge 187

A Bower of Roses 189

/ Edgar Bowers (1924-2000)

The Stoic: For Laura Von Courten 193

/ Edward Field (b. 1924)

World War II 195

/ John Haines (b. 1924)

Mothball Fleet: Benicia, California 201

/ Harvey Shapiro (b. 1924)

Battle Report 203

War Stories 206

/ Lucien Stryk (b. 1924)

Sniper 209

/ Kenneth Koch (1925-2002)

To Carelessness 210

To World War Two 210

/ Samuel Menashe (b. 1925)

Beachhead 214

/ W. D. Snodgrass (b. 1926)

Ten Days Leave 215

Returned to Frisco, 1946 216

/ James Tate (b. 1943)

The Lost Pilot 218.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-250) and index.

ISBN:

1931082332

OCLC:

50417464