Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11, 2026. Updated October 25, 2026. Planning to submit your own work? See our Poetry Submission Deadlines hub.
On Veterans Day we remember the people who served, the ones who came home and the ones who didn’t. This collection gathers classic war poems from the Poetry Catalog public domain archive, led by Walt Whitman, who nursed wounded soldiers in Civil War hospitals and wrote about them more honestly than almost anyone.
Alongside Whitman you’ll find G.K. Chesterton’s poems from the First World War years, Emily Dickinson’s short, piercing lines on soldiers and victory, and Wordsworth’s portrait of the “Happy Warrior.” Every title links to the full poem, free to read, grouped by poet.
For more by any of these writers, visit our Public Domain Poetry page, which links to each poet’s complete collection.
Start Here: In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
- In Flanders Fields – McCrae’s 1915 poem from the Ypres front, the reason poppies became the symbol of remembrance.
Veterans Day and War Poems by Walt Whitman
- O Captain! My Captain! – Whitman’s elegy for Abraham Lincoln: the ship comes home safe, but its captain lies “fallen cold and dead.”
- Beat! Beat! Drums! – The call to war bursts through every door, church, and schoolroom.
- Come Up from the Fields Father – A farm family opens a letter about their wounded son.
- Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night – A soldier keeps watch all night beside a fallen comrade, then buries him at dawn.
- The Wound-Dresser – An old man remembers dressing soldiers’ wounds in the Civil War hospitals.
- Reconciliation – Seven lines. The poet bends over the coffin of his dead enemy and kisses his face.
- Dirge for Two Veterans – A father and son, killed together, carried to a double grave under the rising moon.
- Cavalry Crossing a Ford – A snapshot of horsemen splashing through a river, flags fluttering.
- A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim – Three blanketed bodies outside a field hospital, and the faces beneath.
- The Artilleryman’s Vision – Years after the war, a veteran lies awake and the battle returns to him.
- Ashes of Soldiers – The poet calls up the dead soldiers of North and South alike.
- Adieu to a Soldier – A farewell to a comrade at the end of the campaign.
- The Bravest Soldiers – Two lines on the soldiers who fell “unnamed, unknown.”
- Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day – Soldiers lay down their weapons to mourn their dead commander.
- The Dying Veteran – An old soldier of the Revolution asks on his deathbed to return to his war days.
More: All Walt Whitman poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by G.K. Chesterton
- For a War Memorial – Chesterton’s own “suggested inscription” for a memorial to the men of England who died.
- The English Graves – Ordinary men buried far from home: “They died to save their country and they only saved the world.”
- Elegy in a Country Churchyard – Twelve bitter lines: the men who fought for England have their graves abroad.
- To Captain Fryatt – A tribute to a merchant captain executed in 1916.
More: All G.K. Chesterton poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by Emily Dickinson
- Success – “Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne’er succeed”: a dying soldier hears the victory he will not share.
- The Battle-Field – The fallen drop “like flakes,” but God can call every face.
- Bless God, He Went as Soldiers – A short prayer for a young man who has gone to war.
- Not Any Higher Stands the Grave – The grave is no higher for heroes than for anyone else.
More: All Emily Dickinson poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by William Wordsworth
- Character of the Happy Warrior – “Who is the happy Warrior?” Wordsworth’s portrait of courage and duty.
- Occasioned by the Battle of Waterloo – A sonnet honoring the soldiers of Waterloo.
More: All William Wordsworth poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by John Keats
- To Kosciusko – A sonnet to Tadeusz Kościuszko, the freedom fighter who served in both the American and Polish wars.
More: All John Keats poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by Robert Burns
- Scots Wha Hae – Robert the Bruce’s address to his army before Bannockburn: “Now’s the day, and now’s the hour.”
- The Song of Death – Sung by the wounded and dying on a field of battle at evening: “O! who would not die with the brave!”
- The Soldier’s Return – A soldier walks home from the war to find his Nancy still true, and ends with a plea: “The brave poor sodger ne’er despise.”
- There’ll Never Be Peace Till Jamie Comes Hame – A grey-haired man weeps for his seven sons who “for Jamie drew sword” and now lie in their graves: “There’ll never be peace till Jamie comes hame.”
More: All Robert Burns poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- The Charge of the Light Brigade – Six hundred cavalrymen ride “Into the valley of Death” after “Some one had blunder’d,” and the poem asks us to remember them: “Honour the charge they made!”
- The Revenge – The ballad of Sir Richard Grenville, who would not leave his sick men ashore and fought “fifty-three” Spanish ships of war: “The little Revenge ran on sheer into the heart of the foe.”
- The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava – The companion to the Light Brigade: Scarlett’s three hundred ride uphill into the Russian thousands at Balaclava.
- The Defence of Lucknow – The besieged garrison of 1857 holds out for months, and through it all “ever upon the topmost roof our banner” still flies.
- Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington – Tennyson’s public elegy for the victor of Waterloo: “Bury the Great Duke / With an empire’s lamentation.”
- Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead – A short lyric of grief: a widow cannot weep over her fallen soldier until his child is set upon her knee.
More: All Alfred, Lord Tennyson poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by Rudyard Kipling
- Tommy – A redcoat turned out of pubs and theaters in peacetime, then cheered when the fighting starts, reminds the public that “makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep / Is cheaper than them uniforms.”
More: All Rudyard Kipling poems
Veterans Day and War Poems by Poetry Catalog Contributors
- Men Like These, by Mark Kelly – A soldier’s promise of loyalty: “If I fall, my friends are the way.”
- War, It’s for the Poor, by Andrew Cyr – Two friends talk over coffee about the brothers that war changed.
See also: Poems About Death, Short Famous Poems, Thanksgiving and Autumn Poems (next up: Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26), Poetry Submission Deadlines