Beyond the Trenches

World War I poetry has long been defined through the lens of the male soldier-poet. These poets—most notably Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke—establish a combat-centered literary canon that equates authentic war experience with the front line. This study aims to examine the overlooked voices of women in World War I. The contributions of these women provided a good explanation of various dimensions of war beyond the trenches through their poetry. By utilizing the writings of poets such as May Wedderburn Cannan, Margaret Postgate Cole, Vera Brittain, Jessie Pope, and Charlotte Mew, the article considers how women’s poetry was utilized as a tool for redefining war. Perspectives that were considered in this article include endurance, loss, and domestic resilience. Critical textual analysis revealed recurring motifs based on the views of key feminists like Catherine Reilly, Jane Potter, and Santanu Das. These motifs included absence, mourning, and the silenced body. A major argument of the study is that these poets construct alternative means of witnessing the heroic nature of men as exemplified through their sacrifices in war. Particularly, they do this by foregrounding the unseen suffering of civilians and caregivers. In doing so, women’s poetry transforms war remembrance into a broader cultural archive of grief and endurance. This therefore expands the interpretive views already existing about World War I literature. By assessing the neglected voices of women in World War I, this study contributes to a more inclusive and multifaceted understanding of the poetic legacy of the Great War.