Reflection of World War II in the Lyrics of Georgian “Poet-Soldiers”

Abstract

The experiences and impressions of World War II (1939-1945) have been extensively reflected in the literature of the participating countries and have garnered significant attention. Almost eight decades have passed since the end of the war, yet this topic remains profoundly relevant. The war claimed the lives of 25 million soldiers and 55 million civilians, including 11 million who perished in concentration camps, making it the bloodiest conflict in world history. Many poets actively participated in the war, vividly describing what they witnessed and felt on the battlefield. However, the war's impact extended beyond the front lines, inspiring those who did not directly engage in combat to write about its realities with no less realism.

In post-Soviet countries, the works of Soviet poets dedicated to World War II are widely recognized, yet the poetry of foreign authors has been less accessible to Georgian readers. A comparative analysis of Georgian and foreign war poets, exami­ning thematic and poetic correlations and differences, is particularly interesting.

Poetryfoundation.org marked the centenary of World War I by publishing lists of poets who participated in or died during the wars. The list includes over 130 participants in World War II, with only three poets from the Soviet Union: Mirza Gelovani, Vladislav Zanadvorov, and Konstantin Simonov. Among European and American poets are Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), Keith Douglas (1920-1944), Karl Shapiro (1913-2000), Robert Lowell (1917-1977), Randall Jarrell (1914-1965), W.H. Auden (1907-1973), and others. This article focuses on a selection of renowned poems, alongside an analysis of the best examples from Mirza Gelovani's war lyrics.

The poetry of World War II was heavily influenced by the works of World War I poets such as Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), Robert Graves (1895-1985), and Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) also left a significant impact, although his poems tended towards a more pacifist spirit.

The poetry of World War II is thematically diverse, but it is possible to distinguish several main themes. Some poets wrote about the tragedy of war and comrades who died prematurely, while others focused on the bravery and soldiers’ self-sacrifice; these types of poems were often imbued with patriotic pathos. The question of existentialism also arose sharply: questions about the meaning of human life, purpose, and philosophical analysis reappeared in poetry. The war forced poets to reevaluate values and see the world with new eyes. For example, Isaac Rosenberg, a recognized poet who participated in World War I and died in 1918, known for his "Poems from the Trenches," wrote that the world around him was collapsing and being destroyed. Robert Graves declared that he would never attend a service again, provoked by the young clergyman who preached about "divine sacrifice." There were also those who believed that dying in the war meant dying for a great cause, and such an end was not tragic but desirable. However, another trend emerged in Europe and America: the political and social criticism of the war. Naturally, such poetry could not exist in Bolshevik countries, as no one had the right to criticize the authorities in the Soviet Union.

Moreover, the Soviet Union's political environment prohibited poets from writing freely about the war, and they were mostly forced to write according to the directives received from the authorities. In the Soviet Union, poems about the "Great Patriotic War" predominantly called for victory in the war, emphasized the motive of defending the homeland, and narrated the necessity and inevitability of defeating the enemy. The Bolshevik government mandated that poets write poems to encourage the people and boost their fighting spirit. In Soviet literature, patriotism, previously banned under the guise of nationalism, became permissible again. Most Georgian poets of that time dedicated at least one poem to the Great Patriotic War, as writing on this topic was mandated by the government.

It is noteworthy that calls to write poems about the war were not unfamiliar to Europe either. Harriet Monroe (1860-1936) believed that the romantic image of war was created by poets and that they should be the ones to dismantle it. Her magazine "Poetry" published numerous works on the war theme over the years.

While European editors urged poets to abandon the romanticism of war and describe its reality, Soviet magazines and newspapers were filled with articles pro­moting such a narrative: "Today the poet must come forth with a battle poem... He must replace his pen with a battle weapon... Every Soviet citizen must develop the high moral qualities of a self-sacrificing patriot and fearless fighter" ("Literary Georgia," July 10, 1941) (Tskhadaia 2022: 423). Despite such calls, or perhaps because of them, most poems written on the war theme seem forced and lack the inner depth and sincerity that characterizes true poetry. Grigol Robakidze discusses the poems of prominent poets from that period (Mayakovsky, Bryusov, Mandelstam, and others), and notes that they are cold, monotonous, mechanical, and soulless. According to the author, these poems, filled with simple rhymes and rhythms, have nothing in common with true poetry.

What about Georgian war poetry? WWII particularly influenced the generation of poets from the 1930s, some of whom became victims of this war. Most of the young poets gathered around the magazine "Our Generation": Lado Asatiani, Mirza Gelovani, Giorgi Nafetvaridze, Lado Sulaberidze, Revaz Margiani, and others, did not live to reach 30 and entered Georgian literary history as those who "remained eternally young." Despite the restrictions of the "socialist realism" method that prevailed in 1932-34, they managed to renew the Georgian poetry and write with sincere, deep feeling; although Mirza Gelovani was not the only one who fought on the front-line, his war lyrics are undoubtedly outstanding in Georgian poetry, and they do not conform to the Soviet government's directives.

Rhythmic polyphony, one of the main characteristics of Mirza Gelovani's poetry iis less noticeable in his war lyrics. This is partly because he had little time on the front-line to work on his poems, as he mentions in his letters to his sister, Rusudan. The Jewish-Romanian-French poet Benjamin Fondane, who died in Auschwitz in 1944, wrote that poetry was “only a cry, which should not be placed in a perfect / poem, did I have the time to finish it ?” (Mounic 2015: 16).

After being drafted into the army, Mirza Gelovani also spent much less time on versification experiments, but this does not diminish his war poems; on the contrary, isosyllabic meters make them more melodic. In fact, in these verses the harmonious form opposes the disharmonious content, and the result is truly impressive. Mirza Gelovani's war lyrics are also rich in rhetorical figures and tropes and, despite the metrical simplicity, are expressive and dynamic.

The poet expresses his readiness to face death and fight heroically; his poems even carry a certain challenge to test his bravery, but it does not overshadow the horror of the battlefield. Instead of romanticizing the war, Mirza Gelovani portrays reality unembellished - that war brings death, constant fear of losing one’s life, and the destruction of our morality. War destroys individuals, and Mirza Gelovani strives with all his being to avoid such destruction. On the battlefield losing one’s honour and humanity is the easiest, and preserving both becomes crucial for the poet.

Along with the pain caused by the fate of fallen comrades, Mirza Gelovani's poems also convey a sense of fatalism, and the inevitability of death. The lyrical hero often compares himself to an innocent child caught in the inferno of war: "And the flutter of deadly bullets / Stretched out like tongues of fire in the night, / ... I watched with the eyes of a child" (Gelovani 2009: 262).

While Mirza Gelovani mostly focuses on the gruesome death and suffering of soldiers, Keith Douglas writes about the fighting, fuelled by the desire for victory. The belief that truth is on his side and that he is fighting for a noble cause is driving him and giving him strength and a desire to destroy his enemies.

Keith Douglas holds a prominent place among the poets who fought in World War II. According to critic Desmond Graham, Douglas was the only one from his generation who managed to fully assimilate the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Isaac Rosenberg and base his work on their legacy. Graham considers him not only the best poet of World War II but also the best English poet of his generation, a view shared by many critics (Graham).

Keith Douglas believed that war was the most significant event of his time and that it should become the main subject of literary depiction. The poet also felt that only a soldier could write authentically about war, so, he volunteered for the army to gain combat experience. Douglas’s poetry is characterized by a sharp, realistic depiction style. He effectively uses artistic imagery to create clear, vivid pictures in the reader’s mind.

For Douglas, war is an ideal theme: under the shadow of death, all human masks are stripped away, leaving only the truth, but this truth kills. The poet’s verses are marked by a paradoxical perception of human mortality and time. Time is both thief and donor, and man always carries death within him (Scannell 1976: 38). Death is "the ultimate enemy," but it cannot be defeated forever. Like Mirza Gelovani, Keith Douglas constantly has a premonition of his own death, which is reflected in his lyrics.

In Mirza Gelovani’s poems, we do not encounter the battlefield euphoria or sense of satisfaction from killing the enemy: for him, war is unequivocally evil. The soldiers whose fates he describes could easily be from the opposing camp. Moreover, Gelovani rarely mentions the enemy in his poems directly. The latter also do not reflect the existential crisis of Yeats's lyrical hero (The Aviator). Although the present is wrought with senseless death and suffering, it does not diminish the value of the past and the possible future.

Confronted with the harsh reality, the poet's memories about his beloved, and the hope of returning to her and his home sustain him. Mirza Gelovani’s war lyrics are dichotomous - simultaneously tender and terrifying, full of hope and despair. The poet, "with a heart as pure and vast as the sky," reveals an unquenchable thirst for life and unwavering bravery in his poems. Despite the horrors experienced on the battlefield, Gelovani does not lose his tender worldview, which characterizes his poetry.

Mirza Gelovani’s war lyrics partly echo the work of European and American poets, yet they stand out with an individual style. Although most war poets died young and did not have the chance to reach the peak of their creative potential, their lyrics are marked by impressive artistic imagery. Their message does not leave the reader indifferent; instead, it deeply moves and sometimes even terrifies them.