Trench Ballads, and Other Verses

"Trench Ballads, and Other Verses" by Erwin Clarkson Garrett is a set of poems from the early 1900s that tells of American soldiers' lives in World War I. The verses capture what it was like for them in the trenches. The poems come from what the author saw and went through while serving, showing the terrible battles, the friendships between soldiers, and wanting to be back home. The book starts by talking about the writer’s own connection to war, remembering his father’s time as a soldier in the Civil War. The book is split into three parts: the first part includes soldier poems about the American Expeditionary Forces in France; the second consists of poems that express feelings before the U.S entered the conflict; and the third has different poems that are not only about the war. The first poems paint pictures of the trenches, the constant rain, the difficulties of war, and how strong the soldiers were in spirit, setting a serious but touching mood for the collection.