In time, I will put many items on this blog, but here is something to begin with.

The name of this poet is Leon Gellert.

A little about Leon Gellert: The epitome of what St. John Adcock describes as the "seamy" representation of war can be found in the writing of Leon Gellert, who was "terribly conscious of that revolting, inglorious underside of war." Gellert, from Adelaide, was posted to Gallipoli after the outbreak of war, but developed dysentery and septicaemia after three days of solid fighting. He was discharged from army, but his experience of the horrors of warfare found its way into his verse. In "Songs of a Campaign" he chose to depict the effects of warfare on the men who fought. His war poetry portrays grit, disillusionment and "the piteous wreckage of humanity" in verses about the ordeal of the soldier such as "The Attack at Dawn" and "Before Action," or the after effects of war in "The Cripple," or "The Blind Man." In fact, his writing is emblematic of the disillusionment that extended warfare brought, and similar in tone (if less satiric) to that of the British poet Siegfried Sassoon. This type of anti-romantic war poetry was one of the great revelations of the First World War. Where, in the past, an idealistic language of noble and heroic battle had dominated war writing, the First World War was said to have shattered notions of heroism. St. John Adcock attributes this shift of perspective to the mass conscription of the Great War, where armies consisted of recruits rather than professional soldiers. Gellert is a strong poet, and he is relatively unknown; even in Australia.

The Death

I’m hit. It’s come at last, I feel a smart
Of needles in ……My God …. I’m hit again!
No pain this time……no pain….. and yet…..
my heart……
Where is my heart? ‘Tis strange I feel no pain.
The night is still, the night is very still
I feel the April rain upon my hair.
I see the lights upon yonder hill

Agleam and shining in the silent air.
How soft the grasses seem-how soft and cool!
How long the valley looks-how long and deep!
How warm the rain! I feel a little pool
Beside my hand. I feel…..Can this be sleep?
Can this be sleep…. This buzzing in my head?….
Good God! A light! A light! The pool! I’m ***