Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.
Chat with a librarian, Monday through Friday, 12-2 pm Eastern Time (except Federal Holidays).
Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
Follow @ChronAmLOC External and subscribe to email alerts and RSS feeds.
Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
Imagine yourself hunched in a trench, the sound of gunfire loud above you, awaiting the order from your commander to charge. Thoughts of home and the purpose of life plague you, and soon you are thinking in verse. Beautiful but despondent, the poetry of World War One soldiers captures not only the last moments of someone’s life but an entire lost generation. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| March 30, 1916 | “The Glories of Fighting” by Captain Julian Grenfall. |
|---|---|
| January 31, 1918 | “In Flanders Fields” by Lieutenant Colonel McCrae and “The Living Answer. |
| March 23, 1918 | “Letters Overseas” – How to write to your beloved soldier. |
| May 12, 1918 | The Sun compares German and English war poetry; War Poems from “The Muse in Arms.” |
| June 9, 1918 | Poems Included in "From the Front," an Appleton Anthology. |
| July 28, 1918 | Masefield’s “August 1914”; Brooke’s “The Soldier”; Seager’s “I Have a Rendezvous With Death.” |
| October 27, 1918 | Robert Nichols remembers his fallen poet comrades. |
| January 4, 1919 | “Appostles of “No Humiliation”” by Seaman; “With Peace Impending” by Stringer. |
| April 6, 1919 | Edgar Lee Masters salutes Robert Nichols in verse. |
| June 22, 1919 | Poems by Richard Aldington. |
| March 21, 1920 | “The Soldier Addresses His Body” by Edgell Rickword. |
