Rookie rhymes, by the men of the 1st and 2nd provisional training regiments, Plattsburg, New York — Context and Discussion

Humor as a Coping Mechanism

Many poems use humor to deflate the rigors of training. In "Play the Game," the speaker advises to "grin, and play the game" when faced with bad food, unfair blame, or danger. The repeated imperative "grin" becomes a mantra. "Rubaiyat of a Plattsburg Candidate" parodies Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, replacing wine and roses with "cotton pants O. D." and commands like "Fall in!" The quatrain form is preserved, but the content is deliberately anticlimactic: "I sometimes think that never battles din / Were so unwelcome as the words 'Fall in!'" This intertextual joke would have resonated with educated readers familiar with the original.

Voices of Frustration and Resignation

Several poems express irritation with military routine. "Inoculation Day" likely details the discomfort of medical procedures, while "Those Rumors" and "War's Horrors" hint at the anxiety of waiting. In "A Lament," the speaker bemoans lost comforts. The diction is often direct: "When for nothing you've been bawled, / Though you've done your best get called" captures the arbitrary nature of discipline. The repeated phrase "play the game" across multiple poems suggests a shared ethos of endurance. Yet not all frustration is voiced bitterly; some poems adopt a wry, almost affectionate tone toward the absurdities of camp life.

Patriotic and Solemn Strains

Alongside the humor, the collection includes earnest patriotic poems. "The Stadium, Plattsburg" contrasts a "song to France" with a "deeper, stronger cry" from America. The speaker hears "the mighty song of singing men" and envisions soldiers going forth "to die, / Because, God knows, they're going forth—to live!" The paradox is striking. Another poem, "The Call," uses imperative verbs to summon courage. These pieces employ a more formal, elevated diction—"thund'ring, trumpet-wise," "bleeding white"—and regular meter. The shift in register between sections highlights the range of emotional responses among the soldier-poets.

Everyday Details and Shared Experience

The poems ground their themes in specific, mundane details: "kidney beans and other junk," "cotton pants O. D.," "signal-flags and alidades." These references anchor the verse in the material reality of Plattsburg. "To My Sweetheart" lists daily routines—bugle call, drill, retreat—as occasions for love. "The Manual" likely describes drill instructions. The inclusion of a "Troopship Chanty" and "Fourth Company, N. E. Song" suggests that some poems were meant to be sung, reinforcing communal bonds. By cataloging shared irritations and small pleasures, the collection creates a documentary record of camp life in 1917.

Readers approaching Rookie Rhymes will find a mosaic of perspectives rather than a unified statement. The poems reward attention to their formal choices—parody, ballad, chant—and their use of specific, contemporary references. The collection offers insight into how soldiers processed training through verse, balancing complaint with camaraderie and earnestness with irony.

Holding this little book, I remembered my grandfather’s copy of War Rhymes by Wayfarer, its corners soft from a coat pocket. The same wry shrug at army food, the same tired joke about mud. War Rhymes by Wayfarer — Background and Themes gave me that feeling—not of war, but of men trying to make a small, human sound inside a huge machine. These rhymes are that sound, caught on paper.