From enlistment to conscription, to laments for the lost to our duty to England, war poetry spans all the hardship and reasoning of battle.

Early World War 1 poetry encouraged people to enlist. ‘The period 1915-1921 had begun in Australia, as in England, with a spate of imperialistic verse, expressing fervent support for England and Empire in their hour of peril.’ (Other banners…p. 2) The early attitude was reflected in the numbers; in 1914 Australia committed 20,000 people to fight and by years end, 50,000 had enlisted.

The collection of poems Are we downhearted? No, No; published by the Government printer, encouraged ‘brothers’ to ‘play the game’ and enlist for our Empire:

Writer L.E. Homfray also called on Australians to ‘obey’ and heed the call of the Mother Country:

After two years of fighting and many causalities, the number of volunteers fell. Needing troops, the Australian Government asked the people to decide on conscription via two referendums; one in 1916 and one in 1917. Both were defeated.

Go! It’s your duty Lad. Join to-day

Contrasting with the initial call to arms, the poetry of soldiers, following first hand war experience, dealt directly with the facts of war. Leon Gellert‘s 1917 collection Songs of a campaign included the titles Murder, Armageddon, The Death, The Burial, and The Cripple. The following is from These men:

Men moving in a trench, in the clear noon
Whetting their steel within the crumbling earth;
Men, moving in a trench ‘neath a new moon
That smiles with a slit mouth and has no mirth

Similarly, soldier-poet Harley Matthews wrote, in 1938, about the trenches, bullets, and his injured hope; Earth:

‘…”Earth take and hide
Me,” all my being cried.
That will fall here. Run! Which way? Too late. “Earth- “
No. There is no escape from the machine;
Unseeing, it picks us out and strikes us unseen.
Your are the one hope, Earth. Only a hope…‘

‘Australian literature of the first World War possesses an honesty and truthfulness, a directness and realism, an immediacy and vividness, that strike a sympathetic response in the minds of most general readers today.’ (Other banners…p. 5)

The State Library holds a large collection of World War 1 resources including poetry, conscription material, war posters and postcards.

Written by Paul Dee, Librarian Australian History and Literature