'But who considers woman day by day?': Australian Women Poets and World War I

Whatis striking about Australian women's war poetry written during or soon after World War I is the range of subject matter, variety of moods, and extent of experimentation within and beyond received form. The poetry also reflects a wide range of domestic, professional and other backgrounds of the 'ordinary people' who chose to record their reactions to the war in verse. Just as striking is the extent to which Australian anthologists of war poetry have downplayed women's contributions. It is less surprising that English and American anthologists of war poetry have ignored Australian male and female poets' productions in general, though the reason has less to do with the quality of Australians' writing than' with anthologists' and others ' apparent failure to familiarise themselves with the output. (1) My consequent aim is to place on record an account of some of the war-related genres of Australian women's poetry.