Reinscribing “Break of Day in the Trenches”: Isaac Rosenberg in <i>Poetry</i> Magazine

ABSTRACT Analyzing bibliographic and linguistic codes, this article contextualizes Isaac Rosenberg’s “Break of Day in the Trenches” within the December 1916 issue of Poetry, Harriet Monroe’s Chicago magazine. Scholars typically rely on later book versions and mention the poem’s first publication only in passing. Yet the magazine version alters long-accepted interpretations of the poem’s iconic rat and poppy. Attentive to both textual variants and material culture, the article recuperates this lost World War I story by drawing upon letters, draft manuscripts, and magazine issues from digital archives, including the Modernist Journals Project and the First World War Poetry Digital Archive.