wartime poetry

Wartime poetry is verse written during or about armed conflict, often by soldiers, civilians, or witnesses to war's devastation.

The term most commonly evokes World War I poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, whose work captured the horror and futility of trench warfare.

Such poetry ranges from patriotic rallying cries to bitter antiwar testimony, and it frequently grapples with themes of sacrifice, loss, and the gap between official narratives and lived experience.