Author releases first comprehensive collection of poetry from the Second World War

A landmark collection of poetry focusing on the experiences of British people during the Second World War – from soldiers to civilians – is being published this week.

Poetry of the Second World War: An Anthology is the first to bring together such a broad and diverse range of poems including those authored by military personnel on the frontline in Europe and Africa, and everyday people dealing with the impact of war at home.

The book has been written by Tim Kendall, Professor of English Literature at the University of Exeter, and explores why the poetry of 1939-45 has remained comparatively less celebrated than that written during the First World War.

Published by Oxford’s World’s Classics series, the anthology includes the work of Keith Douglas, a veteran of the theatre of conflict in North Africa, who was tragically killed three days after D-Day. Also featured is Noël Coward, who wrote several comedic and poignant poems during the War, when he worked on behalf of the government.

“This is a kind of sequel to my anthology Poetry of the First World War – and let’s hope it’s the last in the series!” says Professor Kendall. “I always had it in mind that I wanted to anthologise the poetry of the Second World War as a redress, because its poetry is so often overlooked but deserves at least as much attention as that from 1914–18, with which we’re more familiar.

“It’s much harder to generalise about the poetry of the Second World War. What it does have in common is a sense of belatedness. It is very conscious of its predecessor, and many of the poets adopt or challenge that inheritance in different ways.”

The book traces the chronology of war-time poetry, beginning with its ‘first’ poet – Frances Cornford (born 1886) – to its last, Karen Gershon (born 1923). Every poem has been fully annotated, with unusual words explained, and an account given of the various events that are mentioned in the poems themselves.

“I tried to choose the best poems by the best poets, and that comes down to value judgement,” adds Professor Kendall – who teaches in Exeter’s Department of English and Creative Writing. “There are men and women; soldiers, sailors and civilians; spies and translators and codebreakers and celebrities like Noël Coward; poems of the Blitz and poems of North Africa; and so on.

“At least as far as its poetry is concerned, the Second World War is much more varied than the First, where most of the soldier-poetry comes from a small corner of north-east France and Belgium.”

In researching the book, Professor Kendall visited numerous archives and libraries, and spent time searching for the dates and locations where each poem was composed.

He said: “I hope the book will give Second World War poets a new visibility among the reading public, because I think that the best of them are comfortably the match of any poet from the First World War. Just to take one example: Keith Douglas seems to me to write the most powerful and disconcerting battlefield poems of any soldier-poet in English.”

Poetry of the Second World War will be published by Oxford University Press on Thursday 10 October.