Abstract. The Great War has featured regularly in Michael Longley's poetry, for personal, family, aesthetic and political reasons. His collection published in 2011 under the title A Hundred Doors contains a number of poems relating to his father and the so-called War Poets, in connection with others in which love and nature, life and death are also dominant themes. This article will show how, as elsewhere in his poetry, everything is interrelated, "the nature poetry", in Longley's words, "fertilizing the war poetry". Key Words. Michael Longley, Great War, father-figure, war poets, elegy, sonnet, life, death, nature, nurture.Resumen. La Gran Guerra aparece regularmente en la poesía de Michael Longley, por razones familiares, estéticas o políticas. El volumen A Hundred Doors, publicado en 2011, contiene poemas relacionados con su padre y los denominados 'poetas de guerra', junto a otros que abordan también el amor, la naturaleza, la vida y la muerte. El artículo mostrará la interrelación de temas que caracteriza toda su obra poética, en la que, en palabras del propio Longley "la poesía de la naturaleza fertiliza la poesía bélica".Palabras clave. Michael Longley, Gran Guerra, figura paterna, poetas de guerra, elegía, soneto, vida, muerte, naturaleza, crianza.
Who can bring peace to people who are not civilised?All of these people, alive or dead, are civilised.(Michael Longley, The Weather in Japan)