Female Poets of The First World War: Margaret Helen Florine RN (1879 - 1949)

Friday 11 December 2020

Margaret Helen Florine RN (1879 - 1949) – American poet and nurse

With grateful thanks to Chris Dubbs who found me some newspaper articles relating to Margaret and her poetry collection, and to Leo Van Bergan for reminding me that I had not yet researched Margaret.

Margaret was from San Francisco, California, United States of America on 15th January 1879 but I have not been able to find out much about her, other than the fact that she trained as a nurse. The RN after her name means Registered Nurse in America – and Margaret worked in Fabiola Hospital, Oakland, California. In reviewing Margaret’s collection, the “Petaluma Argus-Courier” newspaper of Wednesday, 13 March 1918, mentioned that she had a sister called Mabel “who teaches in the grammar school”.

Margaret was evidently preparing another collection of poetry because on Tuesday November 20 1917, the “San Francisco Examiner” newspaper reported that Margaret was “shortly to leave for the battlefields, where, as an army nurse, she will gather more material for “Songs of a Nurse”.

As far as I have been able to ascertain, Margaret died on 7th April 1949. If anyone has any further information and a photograph please get in touch.

The U.S. Army Nurse Corps (ANC) was established in 1901 as a permanent corps within the U.S. Army Medical Department. Because of the efforts of Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee and advocates for a professional nursing element within the U.S. Army, legislation was included into Section 19 of the Army Reorganization Act and passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate with some modification on February 2, 1901. Prior to the formal and legal recognition of nurses within the Army Medical Department, individuals had been providing care to sick and wounded soldiers as early as 1775.

“The Night Nurse” to M.L.R. by Margaret Helen Florine RN

Your day begins when others work is done,

With duties far more arduous than they know;

For hope has flown, her daily course is run;

She vanished with the sunset’s purple glow.

When she departs the night looms long and black

And filled with terrors never known by day;

Sufferings increase a hundred-fold to rack

The anguished victims, tortured bits of clay.

You calm and comfort with your words of cheer,

And smooth the bed, to snare the vagrant, Sleep;

You try to lure a truant dream, but fears

Like spectres grim around the helpless creep.

Your task is thankless, for as day returns

With fickle Hope you see your efforts scorned.

Your sole reward within your own heart burns,

The knowledge of duty faithfully performed.

From “Songs of a Nurse” (Philopolis press, California, 1918), p. 15. The collection was advertised in the “Pacific Coast Journal of Nursing” (volume 15, 1919, p.770).

Sources:

“A Cap of Horror: First World War poetry written by female Nurses and Carers” “Een Kap Van Afschuw” - an anthology by Leo Van Bergen (Uitgeverij dt (duidelijke taal), Nijmegen, 2020)