Poetry, War, and Trauma: Poems from Ukraine

While there is a long genealogy of war poetry across the world, the relationship between poetry and war is often misunderstood insofar as poetry is perceived as private, personal, and lyrical meditations removed from the world. This misconception was furthered by a misinterpretation of Theodor Adorno’s injunction against writing poetry after Auschwitz. This paper refers to Adorno and Auden to contextualize the place of poetry in times of war. It locates war poetry within theoretical frames of trauma, witnessing, memory, and memorialization. The paper analyses war poetry from Ukraine in English translation, from the Russian occupation, beginning in 2014 to the current war in Ukraine. The poems discussed deal with the ways in which Russia’s occupation and invasion have destroyed everyday lives and communities, ruptured any conception of peace, and instilled long-lasting trauma. Many poems focus on civilian lives since civilians have been deliberately targeted. Through a study of a handful of Ukrainian war poetry we perceive not just the devastation of a country, its lands and peoples, but also resilience and determination, and the necessity to keep bearing witness in and through poetry.