The Second World War has shaped the modern world more than any other single event.This generous and haunting selection of English-language and translated poems includes verse written by servicemen who participated in the war - Keith Douglas, Alun Lewis, Randall Jarrell - as well as by survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust - Primo Levi, Nelly Sachs, Paul Celan - and civilians across Europe and beyond.It features work by important women poets - Elizabeth Bishop, H.D., Anna Akhmatova - exiles such as W.H. Auden and Berthold Brecht, and writers reporting from London, Paris, Warsaw, Moscow and New York, dealing with the terrifying impact and legacy of the conflict.Presented with a historical critical introduction and biographical notes, the result is a vital lyric testimony to the tragic global theatre of the war.