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THE MUSE
THAT FAILED:
POETRY
AND PATRIOTISM
DURING
THE SECOND
WORLD WAR
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At first sight, ‘poetry’ and ‘patriotism’ might seem an unlikely juxtaposition of
terms; indeed, in the context of the Second World War, ‘poetryorpatriotism’
might have been a more conventional title. But it is precisely the conventional view
that will be challenged in this article, since the apparent antithesis rests on certain
assumptions that continue to hamper our understanding of both the poetry and
the politics of the Second World War.
‘War poetry’ is an inherently historicizing term, postulating a relationship
between the historical events of, and the poetic response to, a given period of war.
Both the events and the poems are assembled by historians and literary critics into
related historical and literary narratives of the war, a process which necessarily
involves a selection of what are perceived as significant events and poems. Because