The Complete Poems

Francis Ledwidge, Irish poet, served in an Irish battalion ("The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers") of the British Army during World War I. His first volume of poems was published while he served, in 1915; two more were published posthumously, and were followed by this collection of complete works in 1919. He and five comrades had been killed by an exploding shell during the third battle of Ypres (July 1917). His poems reflect his love for his native rural countryside, tinged with loss arising from the war. From his frequent use of a blackbird motif, he was known as the "Poet of the Blackbird." Of him, the poet John Drinkwater wrote: "His poetry exults me, while not so his death.... to those who know what poetry is, the untimely death of a man like Ledwidge is nothing but calamity." - Summary by Nemo