Francis Ledwidge Francis Edward Ledwidge ( 19 August 188731 July 1917 ) was an Irish war poet from County Meath . Sometimes known as the " poet of the blackbirds " , he was killed in action at the Battle of Passchendaele during World War I . Early life . Ledwidge was born at Janeville , Slane , in Ireland , the eighth of nine children in a poverty - stricken family . His parents , Patrick Ledwidge ( the Ledwidge family , from Shropshire , was granted land in Meath after the Norman invasion ) and wife Anne Lynch ( 1853 – 1926 ) , believed in giving their children the best education they could afford . But when Francis was only five his father Patrick died prematurely , which forced his wife and the children out to work at an early age . Francis left the local national school aged thirteen , and while he continued to educate himself , he worked at what work he could find , as farm hand , road mender and supervisor of roads , as copper miner ( sacked for organising a strike having been a trade union activist since 1906 ) and shop assistant . Appointed secretary of the Slane branch of the Meath Labour Union ( 1913 – 14 ) he had aspirations of permanent white - collar work . His politics were nationalist as well as left - wing . Young poet . Strongly built , with striking brown eyes and a sensuous face , Ledwidge was a keen poet writing where ever he could – sometimes even on gates or fence posts . From the age of fourteen his works were published in his local newspaper , the " Drogheda Independent " reflecting his passion for the Boyne Valley . While working as a road labourer he won the patronage of the writer , Lord Dunsany , after he wrote to him in 1912 , enclosing copybooks of his early work . Dunsany , a man of letters already well known in Dublin and London literary and dramatic circles , and whose own start in publishing had been with a few poems , promoted him in Dublin and introduced him to W . B . Yeats with whom he became acquainted . Dunsany supported Ledwidge with money and literary advice for some years , providing him with access to and a workspace in Dunsany Castle ' s Library where he met the Irish writer Katharine Tynan , corresponding with her regularly . Dunsany later prepared his first collection of poetry " Songs of the Fields " , which successfully appealed to the expectations of the Irish Literary Revival and its social taste for rural poetry . Home Rule and World War I . Ledwidge was a keen patriot and nationalist . His efforts to found a branch of the Gaelic League in Slane were thwarted by members of the local council . The area organiser encouraged him to continue his struggle , but Francis gave up . He did manage to act as a founding member with his brother Joseph of the Slane Branch of the Irish Volunteers ( 1914 ) , a nationalist force sworn to defend the introduction of Home Rule for Ireland , by force if need be . On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 , and on account of Ireland ' s involvement in the war , the Irish Volunteers split into two factions , the National Volunteers who supported John Redmond ' s appeal to join Irish regiments in support of the Allied war cause and those who did not . Francis was originally of the latter party . Nevertheless , having defended this position strongly at a local council meeting , he enlisted ( 24 October 1914 ) in Lord Dunsany ' s regiment , joining 5th battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers , part of the 10th ( Irish ) Division . This was against the urgings of Dunsany who opposed his enlistment and had offered him a stipend to support him if he stayed away from the war . Some have speculated that he went to war because his sweetheart Ellie Vaughey had found a new lover , John O ' Neill , whom she later married , but Ledwidge himself wrote , and forcefully , that he could not stand aside while others sought to defend Ireland ' s freedom . Poetry and war . Ledwidge seems to have fitted into Army life well , and rapidly achieved promotion to lance corporal . In 1915 , he saw action at Suvla Bay in the Dardanelles , where he suffered severe rheumatism . Having survived huge losses sustained by his company in the Battle of Gallipoli , he became ill after a back injury on a tough mountain journey in Serbia ( December 1915 ) , a locale which inspired a number of poems . Ledwidge was dismayed by the news of the Easter Rising , and was court - martial led and demoted for overstaying his home leave and being drunk in uniform ( May 1916 ) . He gained and lost stripes over a period in Derry ( he was a corporal when the introduction to his first book was written ) , and then , returned to the front , received back his lance corporal ' s stripe one last time in January 1917 when posted to the Western Front , joining 1st Battalion , Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers , part of 29th Division . Ledwidge continued to write when feasible throughout the war years , though he lost much work , for example , in atrocious weather in Serbia . He sent much of his output to Lord Dunsany , himself moving on war assignments , as well as to readers among family , friends and literary contacts . On 31 July 1917 , a group from Ledwidge ' s battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers were road - laying in preparation for an assault during the Third Battle of Ypres , near the village of Boezinge , northwest of Ieper ( Ypres ) . While Ledwidge was drinking tea in a mud hole with his comrades , a shell exploded alongside , killing the poet and five others . A chaplain who knew him , Father Devas , arrived soon after , and recorded " Ledwidge killed , blown to bits . " The poems Ledwidge wrote on active service revealed his pride at being a soldier , as he believed , in the service of Ireland . He wondered whether he would find a soldier ' s death . The dead were buried at Carrefour de Rose , and later re - interred in the nearby Artillery Wood Military Cemetery , Boezinge , ( where the Welsh poet Hedd Wyn , killed on the same day , is also buried ) . A stone tablet commemorates him in the Island of Ireland Peace Park , Messines , Belgium . His work as " peasant poet " and " soldier poet " , once a standard part of the Irish school curriculum , faded from view for many decades of the 20th century . Its intensity , coupled with a revived interest in his period , has restored it to life . Publications and reception . Much of Ledwidge ' s work was published in newspapers and journals in Ireland and the UK . The only work published in book form during Ledwidge ' s lifetime was the original " Songs of the Fields " ( 1915 ) , which was very well received . The critic Edward Marsh printed three of the poems in the " Georgian Poetry " series , and remained a correspondent for the remainder of Ledwidge ' s life . A second volume , " Songs of Peace " was in preparation when Ledwidge died ; patron and friend Lord Dunsany wrote the introduction while both were in Derry in September 1916 . Following the war , Dunsany arranged for more of Ledwidge ' s work to be published , first in a third and final new volume , " Last Songs " , and then later in an anthology in 1919 ; he commented on the work with words such as : " [ I was ] " astonished by the brilliance of that eye and that had looked at the fields of Meath and seen there all the simple birds and flowers , with a vividness which made those pages like a magnifying glass , through which one looked at familiar things for the first time . " " Some of Ledwidge ' s poetry was put to music by the British Composer and song - writer Michael Head , most notably in the very well received song cycle published in 1920 , " Over the rim of the moon " . This includes the well - known song , " The Ships of Arcady " . Quotes . Oh what a pleasant world ' twould be , How easy we ' d step thro ' it , If all the fools who meant no harm , Could manage not to do it ! – From a personal letter . Lifting her horn in pleasant meads . – " Lament for Thomas MacDonagh "