World War 2 poetry

Have updated World War 2 poetry blog with a post about Royal Navy serving poet Alan Ross ( 1922- 2001 ) . Have a lot more that could post about Ross's work , but envisage the next two posts also being about British poets. Have so far avoided covering Keith Douglas, most known for his Desert War poetry , but killed in action in 1944 during the Normandy campaign, on the basis that he is one of the few World War 2 poets that seem to be covered here in Britain.
In 2020 would like to cover Czech poetry about World War 2.

WorldWar2poetry

 

World War 2 poetry blog has been quiet as have been working on my new 13th century history blog.

Interested to see that the BBC Radio 3 'Words and Music' music is devoted to a commemoration the liberation of Auschwitz on Sunday 26th January 2020 17.30 Greenwich Meant Time and this will include poetry.

The BBC normally keep programmes available to listen to online for at least 4 weeks after broadcast. No indication which poems and poets that the programme will include.

" In this special edition of Words and Music marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, readers Henry Goodman and Maria Friedman read poetry and prose about life and death at the most notorious Nazi concentration camp....."

BBC Radio 3 - Words and Music, Commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz

 

Who needs the BBC, if there is "The Auschwitz Poems" edited by A. Zych. 500+ pages. Hundreds of poems, all in English. $3 used.

 

Thank you wm. Have never heard of this anthology but found a copy advertised on 'Amazon UK' . No reviews of the book . Must order this.The product description states ;

" An anthology of poems about Auschwitz in English. In new design! The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has published The Auschwitz Poems: An Anthology in English. This is a large volume of 400 poems by 250 poets from around the world. Some were Auschwitz prisoners like Primo Levi, Halina Birenbaum, Charlotte Delbo, Friedrich Löwy and Tadeusz Borowski, and others are modern poets including the Nobel-Prize winners Roald Hoffmann, Elie Wiesel, Salvatore Quasimodo, Wislawa Szymborska, and Czeslaw Milosz "

I have drawn on Hilda Schiff's anthology ' Holocaust Poetry' from 1995 in some of my own writing.

 

Have updated World War 2 Poetry blog with a short post about Holocaust poetry. Looked specifically at the poem 'Pigtail' about human hair being on display at the Museum at Auschwitz written by Polish poet Tadeuzs Rozewicz (1921- 2014)

WorldWar2poetry: Holocaust Memorial Day 2020

There is a short performed version of the poem with a short film on 'Youtube'

 

For next blog post I am hoping to interview a founder member of the 'Life and Death Orchestra' who released a CD titled ,Songs For The Betrayed World' made in 1998 which used the poetry of Tadeusz Borowski, Tadeusz Rozewicz, Elie Wiesel, Czeslaw Milosz, amongst others. . Their website is at
Holocaust Music from the Life And Death Orchestra

With some sample tracks from the CD.

Life And Death Orchestra mp3 download page

Also found a work from 1969 titled 'A War Quartet ' by poet, novelist, and BBC radio producer George Macbeth .(1932- 1992) .
The poems featured are titled.

'The Desert War'
'Autumn Victory' (About the Battle of Britain)
'Under The Sea'
'At Stalingrad'

Macbeth described himself as 'A Child of the War' ( the title of his autobiography from 1987) . Can't immediately think of a work like it where a poet has picked four different theatres of war and tries to write about it from the view of the combatants .

 

Slight change of plan . Decided that needed more time to write about the 'Life and Death Orchestra' and George Macbeth.
Have now written a post titled 'Capel-le-Ferne , which are the lyrics of a song by Sussex singer songwriter Greg Harper . Greg wrote the song after a visit to said monument to the pilots that fought in the Battle of Britain.

WorldWar2poetry: Capel-le-Ferne by Greg Harper

Here is a Youtube link to the original song itself

 

A well-known poem by an air gunner to be found at East Kirkby airfield gate house.

 

Thank you James, Haven't heard about this poem but will add to my collection. Curious to know more about W Scott.If you have any further information, please let me know.

 

This poem was published in "To Shatter the Sky" ( A Bomber Airfield at War, published by Patrick Stephens Limited.1984. I dated the book on 04/10/84, so this in a way it dates me as well. The author, on ops at the time was reflecting on the month previous, a series of raids on Hamburg.

 

Thank you James, are there a number of poems in this book? Will have to track it down at The British Library when lockdown comes to an end.

The note of regret that appears in the poem reminds me of the poem 'My Hands' by Mary E Harrison, who served with the WAAF and was an artist. She made a model of Cologne to assist with the co-ordination of the 30th May 1942 bombing raid. Realising later what she had done she wrote a poem titled 'My Hands' . Here is the first verse

My Hands

" Do you know what it is like to have death in your hands?
When you haven't a murderer's mind?
Do you know how it feels when you could be the cause
Of a child being blind?.
How many people have died through me
From the skill in my finger tips?
For I fashion the clay and portray the landscape
As the fliers are briefed for their trips."

My Hands [Mary E. Harrison]

 

Have updated blog to look at George Macbeth's 1969 attempt to write poetry about World War 2 'A War Quartet 'https://worldwar2poetry.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-poetry-of-george-macbeth-and-war.html
George Macbeth (1932- 1992) was a broadcaster for the BBC, specialising in radio radio programmes, and an accomplished poet and novelist in his own right. Macbeth's youth was overshadowed by Word War 2: He was hiding under the stairs of the family home in Sheffield with his parents when the house was wrecked by the impact of a land mine. Later in the War, his father -who was an Air Raid Warden- vanished one night whilst on duty during a raid, and was never seen again.
Macbeth decided to write 'A War Quartet' , poems looking at four major turning points within the War, from the point of view of a combatant.

 

Finally have written up thoughts about The Life and Death Orchestra who have taken a lot of poetry and prose extracts about The Holocaust and set them to music. They have released a CD and performed an opera, and done some great work in bringing Holocaust related writing to a wider audience. https://worldwar2poetry.blogspot.com/

Have included a short interview with one of their main composers. The poets they have featured include Yehuda Amichai, Tadeusz Borowski, Czeslaw Milosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Hilda Schiff, Elie Wiesel, and Adam Zych. They live in the same city as myself- Brighton- and it's amazing to find someone else in the area has read some Czeslaw Milosz, and Zbgigniew Herbert . They have got me looking at Tadeusz Borowski 's work which I am grateful for.

Here is some lines by Borowski from 'Sun of Auschwitz' , a love poem to his partner Maria Rundo who was arrested at the same time as he was.

The Sun of Auschwitz (extract) Tadeusz Borowski

" I remember
your smile as elusive
as a shade of the colour of the wind,
a leaf trembling on the edge
of sun and shadow, fleeting
yes always there. So you are
for me today,in the seagreen
sky, the greenery and
the leaf-rustling wind. I feel
you in every shadow, every movement
and you put the world around me
like your arms. I feel the world
as your body, you look into my eyes
and call me with the whole world"

(Translation that appears in 'The Auschwitz Poems' 1999 anthology edited by Adam Zych.

Listening to the Life and Death Orchestra has reminded me that I have not really paid much attention to Paul Celan's poetry. Something that I must remedy when I can get back to the National Poetry Library.

 

Have updated blog to look at the war poetry of Gavin Ewart (1916- 1995) , who served in the North African and Italian Campaigns .

WorldWar2poetry


Here is a poem that Ewart wrote in April 1945 . Not typical of his war poetry generally, which is usually more lighthearted .

War Dead

With grey arm twisted over a green face
The dust of passing trucks swirls over him,
Lying by the roadside in his proper place,
For he crossed the ultimate far rim
That hides from us the valley of the dead.
He lies like used equipment thrown aside,
Of which our swift advance can take no heed.
Roses, triumphal cars- but this one died.

Once war memorials, pitiful attempt
In some vague way regretfully to atone
For some lost futures that the dead had dreamt,
Covered the land with their lamenting stone-
But in our hearts we bear a heavier load;
The bodies of the dead beside the road.

 

World War 2 poetry blog news : I have spent a lot of time over the last 5-6 weeks on my 13th History blog but now working on a post about the poetry of Paul Celan 1920-1970, born into a German speaking Jewish family in Romania.
Celan 's most famous poem 'Deathfuge' has been set to music : Here is a version by the Life and Death Orchestra .

 

Have updated World War 2 Poetry blog with a post about Paul Celan ( 1920-1950) ,
https://worldwar2poetry.blogspot.com/2020/07/remembering-paul-celan-1920-1970.html

Working on two other posts for the blog.

One post will on the work of Dutch poet Hans Sleutelaar, who died earlier this year. Born in Rotterdam in 1935, Sleutelaar was in Rotterdam with his family at the time of the German bombardment of 14th May 1940. Hans Sleutelaar and fellow poet Armando wrote a book about Dutch SS volunteers which caused great controversy when published in 1967.

Another posts will be how 20th century rock and progressive rock lyrics dealt with World War 2.

 

Have had to change plans for blogposts as can't get access to a lot of material I need with a second lockdown under way.

Have updated the World War 2 poetry blog with some thoughts about Remembrance Sunday and the relationship between World war 1 and World War 2 poetry. Then started looking at British poet Vernon Scannell (1922-2007) .. Enlisted under his real name John Bain, and served in the North Africa campaign where he deserted , was caught and jailed. He was released to fight in the Normandy campaign and was wounded, and sent back to Britain. He absconded again on hearing news of VE Day without completing the demobilisation process. I have focused on Vernon Scannell' service in Normandy, particularly his poem 'The Walking Wounded.'

WorldWar2poetry: Remembrance 2020


The War Poets Association website has a page about Scannell Vernon Scannell (1922 – 2007) – The War Poets Association

 

Pleased to see that the work of Peter Huchel has been getting some more attention. Perhaps 'Roads' is the most well known poem of his in the the English language.
Huchel was a reluctant German conscript,serving as from 1941, and was a Soviet Prisoner of War. By 1948 he was rehabilitated and settled in the DDR, but gradually became disillusioned with Communism, and the regime placed him under house arrest in 1962. Huchel went into exile in 1971.

A new English translation of his work ,' These Numbered Days' , translated by Martyn Crucefix, was published in 2019. Will try and organise a review of this Martyn Crucefix has written several blog posts about Huchel , the most recent being.

The Outlaw Beyond the Wall: the poetry of Peter Huchel


Roads

Choked sunset glow
Of crashing time
Roads.Roads.
Interesections of flight.
Chart tracks across the ploughed fields
That with the eyes of killed horses
Saw the sky in flames.


Nights with lungs full of smoke,
With the hard breath of the fleeing
When shots
Struck the dusk
Out of a broken gate
Ash and wind came without a sound,
A fire
That sullenly chewed the darkness.

Corpses,
Flung over the rail tracks,
Their stifled cry
Like a stone on the palate.
A black
Humming cloth of flies
Closed their wounds.

Translation of Peter Huchel poem by Michael Hamburger from 'East German Poetry' (1970)

I wrote about Peter Huchel a few years ago for the World War 2 Poetry blog, but the post needs revising WorldWar2poetry: Choked Sunset Glow- the poetry of Peter Huchel

 

Snowed in, I've been cleaning up my document files and passwords. In close proximity I found this site (I joined some years ago) and this poem by my father and thought I would post. He was a 19 year old B-24 Navigator in the 460th shot down over Slovakia. He wrote this 50? years later. The formatting is probably off from converting different word programs.

EN ROUTE TO VIENNA, 1944

They have begun an eighth decade since then,
The days they wondered would they see the night.
A thousand heavy bombers over Trstin
Moving miles on miles per morning hour
En route to history, ten thousand men
Aboard. A military culture Homer
Had told made most all of them unthinking
Of the fear that must have flowed somewhere within.
They couldn't know who would drink deep tonight,
Whole or nursing wounds, who among the many
Would have drunk their last the night before.
They knew that some such fate awaited
On the final target run, when they dared flak,
Their armor tucked around the family jewels.

 

With great reluctance I have decided to cease my blog posting in respect of World War 2 Poetry. I need to devote more time to my 17th century history research. I will keep the blog WorldWar2poetry, people are still reading the posts there . Thank you for everyone who has visited the blog and/or joined in discussions on line, and directed me to World War 2 poetry I had no idea existed.