Erwin Clarkson Garrett divides his book into three distinct parts. Part I, Trench Ballads, consists of forty American soldier poems in the World War, 1917-19, based entirely on actual facts and incidents, and almost exclusively on personal experiences and observations, when a private in Company G, 16th Infantry, First Division, of the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Part II, Pre-war Poems, consists of three sets of verses written just before the active entry of America in the war, and appertaining to, but not an integral part of, it, and therefore grouped separately. Part III, Other Poems, contains those of a general and non-military character. Although perhaps a minor poet his work is fresh and absorbing as his words face up to the huge task of detailing the horrors of war.
