"Anzac Cove" (1916) is a poem by Australian poet Leon Gellert.
It was originally published in the poet's collection Songs of a Campaign in 1917 and was subsequently reprinted in a number of Australian poetry anthologies.
Synopsis The poem is mostly concerned with a description of the landscape of ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It became famous as the site of World War I landing of the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) on 25 April 1915. The poem does not provide any description of the battle fought there, but points to the suffering of those in Australia and New Zealand who lost loved ones there.
Critical reception In a review of the poet's collection Songs of a Campaign that was reported in The Graphic of Australia, J. W. S. Vroland noted that the poems in the volume "are practically all of them sad. There is not one jolly line." The review went on to point out the "simplicity and strength" of this particular poem.
The Anzac Portal webpage of The Department of Veterans' Affairs commented that "Of all the descriptions of Anzac Cove none is perhaps more evocative than that of soldier-poet Leon Gellert", before reprinting the full text of the poem.
Publication history After the poem's initial publication in Songs of a Campaign it was reprinted as follows:
Selections from Australian Poets edited by Bertram Stevens and George Mackaness, Cornstalk Publishing, 1925 From the Ballads to Brennan edited by T. Inglis Moore, Angus & Robertson, 1964 Age Literary Review, 24 April 1965 Other Banners : An Anthology of Australian Literature of the First World War edited by J. T. Laird, Australian War Memorial and The Australian Publishing Service, 1971 The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse edited by Beatrice Davis, Nelson, 1984 New Dimension, April 1985 Poems for All Occasions edited by Ron Pretty, Five Islands Press, 2002 From Gallipoli to Gaza : The Desert Poets of World War One edited by Jill Hamilton, Simon and Schuster Australia, 2003 The Canberra Times, 8 November 2003 Cobbers : Stories of Gallipoli 1915 edited by Jim Haynes, ABC Books, 2005 Two Centuries of Australian Poetry edited by Kathrine Bell, Gary Allen, 2007 The Book of Australian Popular Rhymed Verse: A Classic Collection of Entertaining and Recitable Poems and Verse: From Henry Lawson to Barry Humphries edited by Jim Haynes, ABC Books, 2008 From the Trenches : The Best Anzac Writing from World War One edited by Mark Dapin, Penguin, 2013 International Poetry of the First World War : An Anthology of Lost Voices edited Constance M. Ruzich, Bloomsbury, 2020
See also 1916 in Australian literature 1916 in poetry
References