Chaos of the Night Womens Poetry & Verse of the Second World War

"Unshaken world!/Another day of light/After the human/Chaos of the night." With these words—a vivid mingling of hope and despair—Frances Cornford protested against the terrible brutality of war. Here, in a collection of womens poetry from the Second World War, 87 poets record the devastating upheavals it caused with its attendant partings, separations, and bereavements. Whether as civilians or as auxiliary servicewomen, these women write of the fear of air attacks, of childrens response to evacuation, and of their horror of Nazi persecution. But they convey too the sweet expectation of peace, of reunion, and rebirth. Among the poets, some known and many less known, are Phyllis Shand Allfrey, Elaine Feinstein, F. Tennyson Jesse, Naomi Mitchison, Edith Sitwell, Stevie Smith, and Sylvia Townsend Warner.

Catherine Reilly was the editor of Scars Upon My Heart: Women's Poetry and Verse of the First World War, The Virago Book of War Poetry by Women, and Winged Words: An Anthology of Victorian Women's Poetry and Verse.