War Poems

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!)

......

Continue reading
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,

......

Continue reading
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.

......

Continue reading
102. Parallels
by Kea Campbell

Light from two bulbs drapes over my bathroom mirror; 
One filament severed and the other quite near. 
Steam fogs my reflection from the uselessness of the shower. 
A familiar feeling of my lungs: wrangled and floundered. 
 
Sago by my sill, most placate, my mind. 
A kind sight to your eye; you'd die for a bite. 
White-potted for pleasantries, and loved to a tee. 
Mutualistic co-habitants in a cycle of exchanging O2 for C. 
 

......

Continue reading
Man And Wife
by Robert Lowell

Tamed by Miltown, we lie on Mother's bed;
the rising sun in war paint dyes us red;
in broad daylight her gilded bed-posts shine,
abandoned, almost Dionysian.
At last the trees are green on Marlborough Street,
blossoms on our magnolia ignite
the morning with their murderous five day's white.
All night I've held your hand,
as if you had
a fourth time faced the kingdom of the mad -

......

Continue reading
Recent War Poems
Palatable unpalatability
by Tobias Winters

Are my thoughts too loud,
Does the breeze of my breath graze your skin in the heat of summer?
And my hands cling too tightly that your palms sweat,
And you count the seconds until I notice?
Do my words come out staggered and awkward-
Far apart and yet too close,
And do I linger far too long for hands held too stiff for an applause? [one that won’t occur]

Do you like me kinder, sweeter and quiet?
Am I preferred to lie in the heat of battle,

......

Continue reading
(A poem for dogs) Стихотворение для собак
by not sharing

Imagine streets so full of shit,

Heaps to knee thread, dive; in it.

What can you do with filth so vast?

And could you find a use for that?

Make bricks to stack a tower flat?


......

Continue reading
102. Parallels
by Kea Campbell

Light from two bulbs drapes over my bathroom mirror; 
One filament severed and the other quite near. 
Steam fogs my reflection from the uselessness of the shower. 
A familiar feeling of my lungs: wrangled and floundered. 
 
Sago by my sill, most placate, my mind. 
A kind sight to your eye; you'd die for a bite. 
White-potted for pleasantries, and loved to a tee. 
Mutualistic co-habitants in a cycle of exchanging O2 for C. 
 

......

Continue reading
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.


......

Continue reading
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.


......

Continue reading
Popular Poetry Topics
Popular Famous Poets about War
  • Rudyard Kipling
    Rudyard Kipling (75 poems about War)
    30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936 / Bombay
  • Walt Whitman
    Walt Whitman (47 poems about War)
    31 May 1819 - 26 March 1892 / New York / United States
  •  Anonymous Olde English
    Anonymous Olde English (33 poems about War)
  • James Macpherson
    James Macpherson (31 poems about War)
    27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796 / Ruthven, Kingussie, Badenoch, Inverness-Shire, Scotland
  • Siegfried Sassoon
    Siegfried Sassoon (31 poems about War)
    1886 - 1967 / Kent / England
  • John Barbour
    John Barbour (19 poems about War)
    c.1320 – 13 March 1395 / Aberdeenshire or Galloway, Scotland
  • Wilfred Owen
    Wilfred Owen (17 poems about War)
    1893-1918 / Shropshire / England
  • Andrew Marvell
    Andrew Marvell (13 poems about War)
    31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678 / Yorkshire, England
  • Sir Walter Scott
    Sir Walter Scott (12 poems about War)
    1771-1832 / Edinburgh / Scotland
  •  Franklin Pierce Adams
    Franklin Pierce Adams (11 poems about War)
    F.P.A.] (15 November 1881 – 23 March 1960 / Chicago, Illinois
Popular Poets about War From Members