War Poems | Poemist

Popular War Poems

Boots

by Rudyard Kipling

INFANTRY COLUMNS

We're foot--slog--slog--slog--sloggin' over Africa --
Foot--foot--foot--foot--sloggin' over Africa --
(Boots--boots--boots--boots--movin' up an' down again!)
There's no discharge in the war!

Seven--six--eleven--five--nine-an'-tw enty mile to-day --
Four--eleven--seventeen--thirty-two the day before --
(Boots--boots--boots--boots--movin' up an' down again!)

......

War Is Never Over

by Cecil L. Harrison

War is never over
Thought the treaties may be signed
The memories of the battles
Are forever in our minds

War is never over
So when you welcome heroes home
Remember in their minds they hold
Memories known to them alone

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Exposure

by Wilfred Owen

I

1 Our brains ache, in the merciless iced east winds that knife us ...
2 Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ...
3 Low drooping flares confuse our memory of the salient ...
4 Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous,
5 But nothing happens.

6 Watching, we hear the mad gusts tugging on the wire.
7 Like twitching agonies of men among its brambles.

......

In Spite Of War

by Angela Morgan

In spite of war, in spite of death,
In spite of all man's sufferings,
Something within me laughs and sings
And I must praise with all my breath.
In spite of war, in spite of hate
Lilacs are blooming at my gate,
Tulips are tripping down the path
In spite of war, in spite of wrath.
"Courage!" the morning-glory saith;
"Rejoice!" the daisy murmureth,

......

Glory Of Women

by Siegfried Sassoon

You love us when we're heroes, home on leave,
Or wounded in a mentionable place.
You worship decorations; you believe
That chivalry redeems the war's disgrace.
You make us shells. You listen with delight,
By tales of dirt and danger fondly thrilled.
You crown our distant ardours while we fight,
And mourn our laurelled memories when we're killed.
You can't believe that British troops 'retire'
When hell's last horror breaks them, and they run,

......

Recent War Poems

A land without earthquakes

by Sanja Atanasovska

The swing on which I sit

is rising over a precipice.

I notice another death

and the grandeur

of all the evening chandeliers is breaking.

......

Країна без землетрусів

by Sanja Atanasovska

Гойдалки, на яких я сиджу,
хитаються над прірвою.
Помічаю ще одну смерть,
і велич розбивається
в усіх вечірніх люстрах.
Спалили вірменські церкви,
а в Україні окупанти
затягували чорні пов’язки
на очі людства.

......

Message from the Cathedral

by Nkwachukwu Ogbuagu

Between the altar
and the belfry of the village cathedral,
an ancestral differenceꓽ age-long toll of the bell
and
historic quiet —
all to measure the heartbeat of man
and ascertain the valour in him.
It's wartime, we are sadly reminded!
The sounds of bombs come with both
Heart-cracking noise and necropolis-silence.

......

The War must end - Ukraine vs Russia

by Dr. Robert Ippaso

When is enough enough,
When is the going just too tough.
Why do people have to die
Forever in the ground to lie.

Are the spoils worth all the pain
When the path is kill and maim.
Is barren land worth just so much
Now deprived of human touch.

......

Eyes

by matthew ramsey

Even through war
Slitting throats
Taking lives

Death
So much death
Yet you are ever lonely

Through the parties
The deaths you caused

......