War and the Pity of WarNeil Philip This moving and thought-provoking anthology brings together more than 70 poems inspired by the horror and heroism of war. From the eleventh century B.C. to the present day, including translations from Chinese, Latin, Greek, French, Russian, and Japanese, and ranging from poignant lamentation to sardonic humor, a wide selection of voices speak about every aspect of human conflict, exploring the universal themes that have moved poets throughout the ages. Illustrated with striking scratchboard drawings, the poems collected here reveal both the shifts in people's attitudes over time and the ways in which all wars are the same. Brief historical annotations are provided. Index of poets, index of titles and first lines. |
Contents
Introduction | 7 |
Carl Sandburg Wars | 13 |
Bertolt Brecht from A German War Primer | 19 |
Walter de la Mare Napoleon | 25 |
Walt Whitman Cavalry Crossing a Ford | 31 |
Leon Gellert Before Action | 38 |
Rudyard Kipling The Children 191418 | 46 |
W B Yeats An Irish Airman Foresees His Death | 52 |
John Donne A Burnt Ship | 55 |
Bertolt Brecht War Has Been Given a Bad Name | 65 |
Hara Tamiki In the fire a telegraph pole | 71 |
Matthew Jones Elaine Lavon Hell No I Aint | 96 |
Common terms and phrases
A.E. Housman ain't gonna go American Anakreon Anthology Army of Mercenaries Arthur Waley Beau goes Bertolt Brecht Blunden body lies a-mould'ring Boli Boney breast Bug-a-bow Building the Barricade Carl Sandburg Charles Clarence Major Collected Poems Copyright Dan Pagis death died Earth Epitaph fight fire Frog Pond Galway Kinnell Geary Hobson glory green cigarette guns hands raised head in Warsaw Hell Ivor Gurney John Brown's body John Browns Kijima Hajime Kunene Light Brigade McGrath Neil Philip oh weigh heigh old barbed wire oo-ri Pagis paper soldier Penguin Books Ltd permission of Penguin Peter Jay Phooie Pick a fern poet Poetry rain rambling soldier Remember Barbara rifle is trained Robert Garioch Roman Wall Blues Rudyard says Second World Second World War seen Sidney Keyes Siegfried Sassoon Simonides sing six hundred smiled soldier whose rifle song telegraph pole Vapor Trail Reflected Vietnam W. B. Yeats want to find weep World War TRANSLATED Yeats