Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • National Poetry Day 2020
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • war
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

war

The Poem without a Title - by Jack Low

{ Poem }

I’ve lost a lot of things worth while my pleasure and my fun,
And the days of my captivity pass slowly one by one,
But as I sit in loneliness, each day more plain I see,
My body may be captive but my heart and mind are free.

Murmansk - by James Sinclair

{ Poem }

He minded dem getting torpedoed i da White Sea,
hit blew da boo clean aff.
Da Bulksheid, he held though an dey limpit inta Arcangel,
whaur shu wis lashed ta da peir, an micht still be dere yet.

Bringing Them Home With the Saints - by Brian Johnstone

{ Poem }

Harder
to find in the soundscape is our man,
the bell of his horn sanctifying the notes
in remembrance, or joy that the damned
thing is over

Lament for the Lads - by Neil Munro

{ Poem }

Ochone o for na gillean departed,    Sundered by seas from us, buried afar.Gone are the lads who were leal and high-hearted     And we are now dreeing the dolours of war.’Illean, ’illean, ’illean,    Sorrow may fade but your fame shall endure,’Illean, ’illean, ’illean,    While flower’s in the forest and wind’s on […]

Twenty Years Ago - by J. B. Salmond

{ Poem }

August 1934 There’s a thin rain of music comes across the poppied corn,    Across the poppied corn and the sun-splashed sea,Crying, ‘Who’s a-going venturing, a-venturing, a-venturing,    Who’s a-going venturing with all a man can be?’O, listen, listen, listen, for it’s far, far away,    The dim remembered country where the ghostly pipers blow,Across […]

Craiglockhart - by Brian Johnstone

{ Poem }

Sassoon, the elder, Sunday golfer; / Owen, bookish, gangly, pale – mingling / with the queue for the refectory.

Dulce Et Decorum Est - by Wilfred Owen

{ Poem }

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The…

It Was Easier - by Ruthven Todd

{ Poem }

Now over the map that took ten million years
/ Of rain and sun to crust like boiler-slag,
/ The lines of fighting men…

Cause and Effect - by Alan Bold

{ Poem }

He thought before the war
/ Of conflicts, heroism, enemies
/ Who had to be crushed;
/ Causes that had to be fought for.
/
/ He had no…

Every Woman - by Aiko Greig

{ Poem }

Who can gauge our range or pace? Every woman, / a signal tower, an illusion, a ship bearing dead ahead.

Logos - by JL Williams

{ Poem }

She walks on the charred ground, wings of smoke
/ from the bones of her home rising.
/
/ ‘Here was, there used to be,…

The Digger - by Hamish Mann

{ Poem }

He was digging, digging, digging with his little pick and spade,
/ And when the Dawn was rising it was trenches that…

1 2 3 Next
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss