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.
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.
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.
Gellert, Leon (1917) Songs of a Campaign. Angus & Robertson: Sydney
Westbrook, Frank E. (ND) Anzac and After. Duckworth and Co: London
Skeyhill, Tom (ND) Soldier Songs from Anzac. George Robertson & Company: Melbourne
Manning, Frederic (1917) Eidola. E.P. Dutton and Company: New York
Trooper Gerardy (1919) Australian Light Horse Ballads and Rhymes. H.H. Champion Australian Authors’ Agency: Melbourne
Wall, Geoffrey (1917) Songs of an Airman. Australian Authors’ Agency: Melbourne
Turner, W.J. (1918) The Dark Fire. Sidgwick & Jackson: London
McDonald, W.M. (ND) Soldiers Songs from Palestine. Edward A. Vidler: Melbourne
Bonwick, C.E. (1917) Diary of Australian Army Nurse Christine Erica Strom. (NP): (NC)
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
Brennan, Christopher (1918) A Chant of Doom and Other Verses. Angus and Robertson: Sydney
Lawson, Henry (1916) Song of the Dardanelles and Other Verses. George G. Harrap & Company: London
Le Gay Brereton, John (2012) 73 Poems. PoemHunter.com – The World’s Poetry Archive: (NC)
Nelson, Leonard (1918) Dinky-Di Soldier and Other Jingles. Tyrrell’s Limited: Sydney
Rose-Soley, Agnes (1923) Stray Chords. Tyrrell’s Limited: Sydney
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
Gore-Jones, A. (1917) Troop Trains and Other Verses. G. Hassell & Son: Adelaide
McCrae, Dorothy Frances (ND) The Clear Call. George Robertson & Company: Melbourne & McCrae, Dorothy Frances (ND) Soldier my Soldier! George Robertson & Company: Melbourne
"Sonnet of Welcome". The Herald. No. 13, 791. Victoria, Australia. 25 May 1920. p. 1. Retrieved 12 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia. Torrance, Joan (ND) Sons of the Southern Sea. Francis, Day & Hunter: London
Murdoch, Nina (1915) Songs of the Open Air. William Brooks & Co.: Sydney & Murdoch, Nina (1922) More Songs of the Open Air. Robertson & Mullens: Melbourne
Betts, Margery Ruth (1917) Remembering and Other Verse. Australian Authors’ Agency: Melbourne
Ed. by Strauss, Jennifer (2004) The Collected Verse of Mary Gilmore, Vol. 1 1887 – 1929. University of Queensland Press: Brisbane
Kidson, May (1918) Memory’s Voices. Returned Serviceman’s Association: Perth
Robertson, Philadelphia N. (ND) An Anzac Budget and Other Verses. Australian Authors’ Agency: (NC)
Lawson, Henry (1916) Song of the Dardanelles and Other Verses. George G. Harrap & Company: London