The War Poets

• A poet knows war without objective war in the world; it was conflict at the root of his mind that impelled him to the masking of these conflicts in the apparent resolution and order of works of art.In a dialectical sense, all poetry is war.
• The war may present or force a subject; it may bring out a poet, or shock him onto a sensibility of silence. It may kill him. Or germinate the best war poems for exfoliation years after the event.
  • The War Poets ed. Oscar Williams. New York 1945

"The Fury of Aerial Bombardment"

• I felt the ruthfulness and senselessness of war so acutlely that I wrote the first three stanzas of which, are in effect a prayer.
  • The Poetry of War 1939-45 ed. Ian Hamilton, London 1965

• Was man made stupid to see his own stupidity?
  Is God by definition indifferent, beyond us all?
  Is the eternal truth man's fighting soul
  Wherein the Beast ravens in its own avidity?

• • Poem: The Fury of Aerial Bombardment

Other

• Poems in a way are spells against death. They are milestones, to see where you were then from where you are now. To perpetuate your feelings, to establish them. If you have in any way touched the central heart of mankind's feelings, you'll survive.
  • Quoted in his obituary Dartmouth College news release

• Poetry is a natural energy resource of our country. It has no energy crisis, possessing a potential that will last as long as the country. Its power is equal to that of any country in the world.
  • from his 1977 acceptance speech for a National Book Award Chicago Sun-Times, Jun 13, 2005