War Poetry

• he combination of poetry and war seems oxymoronic, a type of water and oil mix

• When we think of poetry, we think of beauty — images so lovely or stunning they take our breath away.

• When we think of war, other images come to mind —destruction, sacrifice. Death. And yet war poetry remains one of the earliest categories of verse in Western literature.

• Perhaps only poetry about nature and love — two aspects of humanity that war often consumes— are more popular in the annals.

• Our greatest poetic masterpieces— from Homer's Iliad to several of Shakespeare's plays — are, essentially, war poems.

• War poetry is universal. War is war, pain is pain, loss is loss; the topics and themes seldom change —only the names of battles, casualties and weapons do.

• Consider the essence of this excerpt translated by Michael Alexander from Beowulf (c. 1000), whose content deals with historical battles of the sixth century (along with a few fire-breathing dragons):

• There were melting heads

• and bursting wounds, as the blood sprang out

• from weapon-bitten bodies. Blazing fire,

• most insatiable of spirits, swallowed the remains

• of the victims of both nations. Their valour was no more.

• Those lines could apply to any war, Anglo-Saxon to Gulf.

• Nonetheless, defining what constitutes war poetry is not as simple as it may seem

• The category is broad because war affects so many people: the combatants, of course, but also their families, loved ones, civilians, activists, clerics, medical personnel, and peace- and policymakers.

• "Most war poetry deals with the extremes of human behavior," says Bruce Weigl, author of the collection Song of Napalm (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1988).

• "In a war writers are/were able to see their

• fellow human beings at their very best and at their worst. War poetry has a tendency to be more politically based than poetry in general

Kevin Bowen, poet and co-director of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, says war poetry (like other kinds of poetry) focuses on conflict, pain and suffering.

"The experience of war is so far outside

the range of normal experience that the heart and spirit feel split and betrayed —no one is a victor, there are only survivors.

So in many ways such poetry is a reaffirmation of the physical and spiritual horrors of war and a commitment to the act of bearing witness."

OVERVIEW

The literary canon contains many war poems because war is part of the human condition. And the voices that sing of war not only span the centuries but employ a variety of verse forms and approaches.

Here are some basic types:

The Prayer.

A popular type of war poem, this seventeenth-century example by Robert Herrick — known ironically for his love poetry — qualifies as one of the best:

A VOW TO MARS

• Store of courage to me grant,• Now I'm turned a combatant:• Help me so, that I my shield,• (Fighting) lose not in the field.

• That's the greatest shame of all,• That in warfare can befall.

• Do but this; and there shall be• Offered up a Wolfe to thee.

The Farewell.

• When soldiers leave for war, some of them also leave poems to loved ones.

The Tribute.

Tribute poems honor a leader or commander, as illustrated by this 1652 Milton lyric which pays tribute to Oliver Cromwell, who took over Parlimentary armies after Charles I was dethroned

and executed:

• TO THE LORD GENERAL CROMWELL

• Cromwell, our chief of men,