author
Erwin Clarkson Garrett
1879–1954
A soldier-poet who wrote from lived experience, he turned military life and the harsh realities of war into direct, memorable verse. His work is especially linked to World War I, with poems shaped by what he saw and endured in uniform.
2 Audiobooks
The Dyak chief, and other verses
by Erwin Clarkson Garrett
Trench Ballads, and Other Verses
by Erwin Clarkson Garrett
About the author
Born in Philadelphia on March 28, 1879, Erwin Clarkson Garrett was an American poet whose writing drew heavily on military life. His books include The Dyak Chief and Other Verses, My Bunkie, and Other Ballads, Army Ballads and Other Verses, and Trench Ballads and Other Verses.
Garrett is best remembered for Trench Ballads and Other Verses, a collection rooted in his service as a private in Company G, 16th Infantry, First Division, during the First World War. In the book's preface, he explained that the poems were based largely on actual facts and on his own experiences and observations, which gives the work its plainspoken, firsthand quality.
He died in October 1954. Though not widely known today, his poetry offers an immediate, on-the-ground view of soldier life and helps preserve a personal record of war in verse.