author
Abner Cosens
1861–1942
A Canadian poet remembered for sharp, often patriotic verse, he wrote under the pen name “Wayfarer” and is best known for poems shaped by the First World War. His work offers a vivid glimpse of how one early 20th-century writer responded to public life, conflict, and national feeling.
1 Audiobook
War Rhymes by Wayfarer
by Abner Cosens
About the author
Abner Cosens was a Canadian poet born in 1861 and died in 1942. Reliable online sources for his life are scarce, but literary archives and public-domain editions confirm that he published poetry and that he sometimes wrote under the name Wayfarer.
He is especially associated with War Rhymes, a collection of verse connected with the First World War and published in Wingham, Ontario. The poems are direct, public-facing, and often strongly patriotic, reflecting the tone and pressures of wartime writing rather than a private, inward style.
Today, Cosens is mainly encountered through digital archives such as Canadian poetry collections and Project Gutenberg, where his work survives for new readers. Even with limited biographical detail available, his poems remain a useful window into Canadian literary culture during the war years.