I have been unable to find biographical details for May. If you can help, please get in touch.
May Herschel-Clarke is one of the female poets on my List. Her poem “The Mother”, written after reading Rupert Brooke's sonnet “The Soldier”, was published in the journal “T.P.s Weekly”, the editors of which were: Nov. 1902-June 1914, T. P. O'Connor. July 1914 - April 1916, Holbrook Jackson.
“The Mother”
If you should die, think only this of me
In that still quietness where is space for thought,
Where parting, loss and bloodshed shall not be,
And men may rest themselves and dream of nought:
That in some place a mystic mile away
One whom you loved has drained the bitter cup
Till there is nought to drink; has faced the day
Once more, and now, has raised the standard up.
And think, my son, with eyes grown clear and dry
She lives as though for ever in your sight,
Loving the things you loved, with heart aglow
For country, honour, truth, traditions high,
—Proud that you paid their price. (And if some night
Her heart should break—well, lad, you will not know.
May Herchel-Clarke
May’s WW1 poetry collection “Behind the Firing Line, and Other Poems of the War” was published in 1917 by Erskine Macdonald, London.
Sources:
Catherine W. Reilly “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 167.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6AJCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=may+herschel+clarke&source=bl&ots=ZL6ow9v--O&sig=ACfU3U2OhHYnIqN2wGv610J4omQKBHdmjA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiR8rmHtpjiAhUdBWMBHemeChU4HhDoATAGegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=may%20herschel%20clarke&f=false
