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.