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Laurence Binyon was born in Lancaster, England, in 1869. Best known for his poem “For the Fallen,” written at the onset of World War I, Binyon also wrote and translated verse drama and worked as an art historian. He died in 1943.
Edward Estlin Cummings is known for his radical experimentation with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax; he abandoned traditional techniques and structures to create a new, highly idiosyncratic means of poetic expression.
Charles Hamilton Sorley was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1895. He served in the British Army and was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915. His poetry was published posthumously as Marlborough and Other Poems (Cambridge University Press, 1916).
John McCrae was born on November 30, 1872. A Canadian doctor and teacher who served in World War I, he is best known for his memorial poem “In Flanders Fields.” He died on January 28, 1918.
One of the most admired poets of World War I, Wilfred Edward Salter Owen is best known for his poems "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Dulce et Decorum Est." He was killed in France on November 4, 1918.
Edmund Blunden was born in London, England, in 1896. Called "the poet of the war most lastingly obsessed by it," he fought in World War I and was the author of Retreat (Doubleday, Doran, 1928) and several other poetry collections. He died in 1974.
Joyce Kilmer was born on December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The author of Main Street and Other Poems (George H. Doran Company, 1917), he was killed while fighting in World War I.