. . . These are a conquered people,
said the British sergeant,
putting his hand on my shoulder
at the bar in Foggia, Italy—
this is 1944. He was instructing
me on why I should not tip
the Italian barmaid, as I was doing.
A conquered people. I liked the phrase
because it had the ring of history, . . .
— Harvey Shapiro
Harvey, who died on January 7th of this year at the age of 88, flew 35 missions as a B-17 radio gunner for the United States Army Air Force in Italy and Central Europe in World War II. For the Library of America he edited Poets of World War II — an excellent anthology. You can read about it here and a little more about Harvey's wartime exploits in this essay: "Peace and War in American Poetry," dedicated to the vliant who served. — DL