2026 Between 1914 and 1921, work by poet Wilfrid Gibson appeared in Sylvia Pankhurst’s socialist feminist paper the Woman’s Dreadnought. Their association throws light on the interwoven social, political and cultural networks of the time, and on Gibson’s commitment to ‘Art for Life’s Sake’: poetry as a form of activism.
Reminding us that the horrors of war extend far beyond the battlefield, Wilfrid Gibson’s poem ‘Katherine Veitch’ tells of a mother driven to madness by the loss of her son at the battle of Loos in 1915. Gibson, one of the first poets to write about World War 1, had previously described soldiers with shell-shock; … Continue reading A Poem for Armistice Day 2025: Katherine Veitch by Wilfrid Gibson
This lesser-known war poem by Wilfrid Gibson was written shortly after the birth of his first child, Audrey, on May 31, 1916. It remains all too relevant today One-Day-Old Baby asleep on my arm, Would that my heart could enfold you, Cherish you, shelter you, hold you Ever from harm. Born in a season of … Continue reading For Armistice Day 2023: poem by Wilfrid Gibson
I have uploaded four more war poems by Wilfrid Gibson and one by Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne. They are among those mentioned in my latest article, ‘”War is a business of innumerable personal tragedies”: Wilfrid Gibson, Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne and the First World War’. (Published this month in Dymock Poets and Friends, No 15, 2016, it … Continue reading New in March 2016: more war poems by Wilfrid Gibson and Elizabeth Gibson Cheyne
Provides some basic information about Gibson’s life.