A month of war verse

The month of September will be dedicated to the war poetry of Florence Earle Coates. Mrs. Coates penned many war poems during World War I, and privately published a pamphlet of poetry in support of American involvement in the war entitled Pro Patria (1917). Poems will be listed daily.

TRENCHES AT LEAGUE ISLAND PHILADELPHIA. These Marines are training in a bombproof, one of a series of such trenches constructed at the League Island Navy Yard to duplicate the developments in construction abroad. [Photo and caption from p. 55 of Collier’s New Photographic History of the World’s War (1918).]

"...of special interest are her views on war, voiced in the poems scattered throughout her work, particularly those in ... 'Pro Patria,' that burn with a passionate fervor of patriotism, as stirring as the roll of drums at dawn." ("Florence Earle Coates: Some Phases of Her Life and Poetry" (1917) by Elizabeth Clendenning Ring)