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Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

I lived from 1878-1962. I was from England, and am in the English category.

I was influenced by poet Rupert Brooke.

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1878-1962), a close friend of Rupert Brooke and a protégé of Edward Marsh, was born in Hexham, England in 1878.
Gibson worked for a time as a social worker in London's East End. He published his first verse in 1902, Mountain Lovers. He had several poems included in various Georgian poetry collections prior to the war. He also wrote a play, Daily Bread, which was produced in 1910.

After the outbreak of war, Gibson served as a private in the infantry on the Western Front. It was therefore from the perspective of the ordinary soldier that Gibson wrote his war poetry.
His active service was brief, but his poetry belies his lack of experience, Breakfast being a prime example of ironic war verse written during the very early stages of the conflict.
Following the armistice, Gibson continued writing poetry and plays. His work was particularly concerned with the poverty of industrial workers and village labourers. Collected Poems: 1905-1925 was published in 1926, The Island Stag in 1927, and Within Four Walls in 1950.

Wilfred Wilson Gibson died in 1962.

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  • THOUGH three men dwell on Flannan Isle
    To keep the lamp alight,
    123 lines, 20 comments
  • He's gone.
    I do not understand.
    8 lines, 1 comment
  • We ate our breakfast lying on our backs,
    Because the shells were screeching overhead.
    9 lines, 3 comments
  • We who are left, how shall we look again
    Happily on the sun or feel the rain
    10 lines
  • "And will you cut a stone for him,
    To set above his head?
    97 lines, 8 comments
  • Indifferent, flippant, earnest, but all bored,
    The doctors sit in the glare of electric light
    14 lines
  • 1
    Your face was lifted to the golden sky
    60 lines
  • So long had I travelled the lonely road,
    Though, now and again, a wayfairing friend
    15 lines, 2 comments
  • So long had I travelled the lonely road,
    Though, now and again, a wayfairing friend
    15 lines, 1 comment
  • When consciousness came back, he found he lay
    Between the opposing fires, but could not tell
    168 lines

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