Australian World War I poetry explained

There were five main arenas where Australian Great War Poetry was written in the period of 1914 to 1939: the Home Front, Gallipoli, The Middle East, The Western Front and England. These arenas were to form important segregations of poetic attitude and interest specific to the war mood at the time. Australian poets, just like their British counterparts, could be humorous, melancholy, angry or just longing for home. Many Australians, for example, wrote about the Australian flora, and how they missed it.

Many of these poets served in more than one campaign, while others only served in one, either joining up after Gallipoli, or being invalided back home or killed in action. A small listing of Australian Great War Poets can be seen below.

Soldiers

Leon Gellert,[1] Frank Westbrook,[2] Oliver Hogue, Tom Skeyhill,[3] Frederic Manning,[4] Edwin Gerard,[5] Geoffrey Wall,[6] Walter James Redfern Turner,[7] William McDonald,[8] Ion Idriess, Andrew Barton Paterson and many others.

Nurses

Christine Erica Strom,[9] Alice Ross-King and Emily 'Beryl' Henson.

Civilian men

Archibald Strong, Arthur Henry Adams, Bernard Patrick O’Dowd, C.J. Dennis,[10] Christopher Brennan,[11] Edward Dyson, Henry Lawson,[12] John Le Gay Brereton,[13] Leonard Nelson[14] and many more.

Civilian women

Agnes Rose-Soley,[15] Agnes Littlejohn,[16] Alice Gore-Jones,[17] Capel Boake, Dorothea McKellar, Dorothy McCrae,[18] Ella McFadyen,[19] Esther Nea-Smith, Grace Ethel Martyr,[20] Joan Torrance,[21] Madoline 'Nina' Murdoch,[22] Margery Ruth Betts,[23] Marion Knowles, Mary Gilmore,[24] May Kidson,[25] Philadelphia N. Robertson[26] and many others.

Foreign pro-Australia

Arthur St. John Adcock - Lance Corporal Cobber, C. Fox Smith, Edgar Wallace, Ethel Campbell, Henry Newbolt, Jessie Pope and Sylvia Hobday.

Prediction poets

Henry Lawson[27] and William Wentworth to name only two. There are several.

External links

AGWP Canon & Register Australian Great War poetry website

Notes and References

  1. Gellert, Leon (1917) Songs of a Campaign. Angus & Robertson: Sydney
  2. Westbrook, Frank E. (ND) Anzac and After. Duckworth and Co: London
  3. Skeyhill, Tom (ND) Soldier Songs from Anzac. George Robertson & Company: Melbourne
  4. Manning, Frederic (1917) Eidola. E.P. Dutton and Company: New York
  5. Trooper Gerardy (1919) Australian Light Horse Ballads and Rhymes. H.H. Champion Australian Authors’ Agency: Melbourne
  6. Wall, Geoffrey (1917) Songs of an Airman. Australian Authors’ Agency: Melbourne
  7. Turner, W.J. (1918) The Dark Fire. Sidgwick & Jackson: London
  8. McDonald, W.M. (ND) Soldiers Songs from Palestine. Edward A. Vidler: Melbourne
  9. Bonwick, C.E. (1917) Diary of Australian Army Nurse Christine Erica Strom. (NP): (NC)
  10. Dennis, C.J. (1916) The Moods of Ginger Mick. Angus & Robertson: Sydney & Dennis, C.J. (1915) The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke. Angus & Robertson: Sydney
  11. Brennan, Christopher (1918) A Chant of Doom and Other Verses. Angus and Robertson: Sydney
  12. Lawson, Henry (1916) Song of the Dardanelles and Other Verses. George G. Harrap & Company: London
  13. Le Gay Brereton, John (2012) 73 Poems. PoemHunter.com – The World’s Poetry Archive: (NC)
  14. Nelson, Leonard (1918) Dinky-Di Soldier and Other Jingles. Tyrrell’s Limited: Sydney
  15. Rose-Soley, Agnes (1923) Stray Chords. Tyrrell’s Limited: Sydney
  16. Littlejohn, Agnus (July 1915) Patriotic Poems. (NP): (NC) & Littlejohn, Agnus (Jan 1915) Lyrical Poems. Harry Gorton: Sydney & Littlejohn, Agnus (1916) War Poems. Vale & Pearson: Sydney
  17. Gore-Jones, A. (1917) Troop Trains and Other Verses. G. Hassell & Son: Adelaide
  18. McCrae, Dorothy Frances (ND) The Clear Call. George Robertson & Company: Melbourne & McCrae, Dorothy Frances (ND) Soldier my Soldier! George Robertson & Company: Melbourne
  19. Web site: State Library Victoria: Songs of the Last Crusade. State Library Victoria. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20190207072322/https://viewer.slv.vic.gov.au/ . 2019-02-07 . 2019-12-24.
  20. News: 25 May 1920. Sonnet of Welcome. 1. The Herald. 13,791. Victoria, Australia. National Library of Australia. 12 February 2022.
  21. Torrance, Joan (ND) Sons of the Southern Sea. Francis, Day & Hunter: London
  22. Murdoch, Nina (1915) Songs of the Open Air. William Brooks & Co.: Sydney & Murdoch, Nina (1922) More Songs of the Open Air. Robertson & Mullens: Melbourne
  23. Betts, Margery Ruth (1917) Remembering and Other Verse. Australian Authors’ Agency: Melbourne
  24. Ed. by Strauss, Jennifer (2004) The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore, Vol. 1 1887 – 1929. University of Queensland Press: Brisbane
  25. Kidson, May (1918) Memory’s Voices. Returned Serviceman’s Association: Perth
  26. Robertson, Philadelphia N. (ND) An Anzac Budget and Other Verses. Australian Authors’ Agency: (NC)
  27. Lawson, Henry (1916) Song of the Dardanelles and Other Verses. George G. Harrap & Company: London

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