SOURCE: "The Poetry of General George S. Patton, Jr.," in Journal of American Culture, Vol. 8, No. 4, Winter, 1985, pp. 71-82.

In the following essay, Prioli offers a close reading of several pieces of Patton's verse, both published and unpublished.

 "I have a hell of a memory for poetry and war."
 —Major George S. Patton, Jr. to his wife,
 March 20, 1918. 

Next to war, poetry was one of the great passions of George S. Patton, Jr. He was a diligent student of military history, an accomplished horseman and polo player, a skilled sailor and swordsman. Above all, of course, he was a soldier but he also saw himself as a poet, and he seized upon the most dramatic aspects of each profession in ways calculated to astonish his critics, delight his troops, and mystify his country's enemies. He saw nothing in the nature of the profession of arms that would prevent...