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On August 4th, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany in response to events leading up to, and following, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary. The war was dubbed “the war to end all wars” and the human cost was immense; by the Armistice of November 11th 1918 almost 9 million lives were lost, including 780,000 British, (Abrams, Greenblat et al, 1993: p1825). When war broke out literary and poetic trends were romantic, pastoral works, but the horrors of war and human loss, combined with patriotic, disillusioned propaganda poetry, provoked trench poets such as Sassoon and Owen to write satirical, sombre poems detailing the realities of war. Poets like Brooke, whose poem The Soldier (1914) adorns cenotaphs nationwide, continued to write in the romantic, patriotic style, but the later works of Sassoon challenged them. Sassoon’s satirical poems directly contrasted with pro-war propaganda poems by authors like Jessie Pope. However, it was not only servicemen who were enraged by the realities of war and propaganda; writers such as Helen Hamilton directed poetry at authors who glorified war and mocked civilian men. The poets of the era fought their own literary battle, challenging each others’ opinions. Some had direct opposition; Wilfred Owen dedicated his poem, Dulce Et Decorum Est (1917) “to Jessie Pope”, others had poetic allies. Three poems that demonstrate this are Siegfried Sassoon’s Glory Of Women (1917), The Romancing Poet (1917) by Helen Hamilton and Jessie Pope’s The Beau Ideal (1915).
Siegfried Sassoon, Mad Jack as he was affectionately known by his comrades (Campbell, 1999, p14), came from a privileged background and was educated at Cambridge. He left before graduating to pursue his literary interests after discovering a love for poets like Tennyson and Yeats. Leaving the upper-middle class lifestyle behind him he moved to London. In 1914 he enlisted with the Sussex Yeomanry but went on to serve as an officer with the Royal Welch Fusiliers (Trueman, 2011) His early war poetry was typical of the era, patriotic and romantic, however the loss of both his brother and best friend changed his attitude. During a period of convalescence, after being shot by a sniper, his enthusiasm and patriotism diminished and he wrote poems criticising his senior officers, similar to Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade (1854). He sent one of these to his colonel and it was only the intervention of fellow trench poet Robert Graves that saved him from punishment. After a period of convalescence at Craiglockhart War Hospital he was sent to France where he was injured ending his war career. He died in 1967.
Glory of Women is written in sonnet form using iambic pentameter, the same form as Shakespeare’s love sonnets. The title is a sarcastic play on the way women glorified the men serving overseas. The first octave describes the way women take the credit for the actions of their men, how they glorify the war. He feels they value medals and heroic stories over their safety. The last two lines of the octave demonstrate this sentiment and express Sassoon’s bitterness:
“You crown our distant ardours while we fight,
And mourn our laurelled memories when we’re killed.” (7-8)
The word “laurelled” alludes to Christ’s crucifixion and intimates that women prefer martyrs rather than survivors. Sassoon believes that women live in a fantasy world fuelled by propaganda, and are blind to the true horrors their men are experiencing. His accusatory bitterness is made powerful by his repetitive use of you throughout the poem.
The final sestet emphasises the horror, turning fantasy to reality, using imagery. He opens the sestet by mocking their belief that their men would not retreat when faced with “hells last horror”, alliteration emphasises his point. Using words like ‘blood’ and ‘corpses’ forces the reader to visualise their heroes’ predicament. The mention of German mothers is especially strong, it demonstrates his own compassion for all soldiers regardless of their side but also produces a knock-out blow - mothers of serving soldiers would visualise their son with “His face trodden deeper in the mud”. This didactic poem has a very bitter tone and exposes Sassoon’s disdain toward women. Its objective is to inform women of the realities and is fuelled by frustration with propaganda and censorship that manipulated women’s perceptions.
The works of pro-war propaganda poets, such as Jessie Pope, would have infuriated Sassoon. Pope, like Sassoon was well educated, which would indicate that she too was from a privileged background (Potter, 2008). A working journalist for The Daily Mail when war broke, she utilised her journalistic, rhetoric skills and humour to write propaganda verse for publication, with the sole purpose of encouraging men to sign up.
Pope’s jingoistic poems reflect that she never experienced trench warfare first hand, unlike her literary opposition. Her poems typically alluded to sports and games with simple sing-song rhythms making them sound like nursery rhymes. The naive and jovial themes support Sassoon’s view that those at home did not grasp the seriousness of the situation. This light hearted approach made the war sound like an insignificant game rather than the bloodbath it was; this can be likened to Baldrics opinion that the war started when “Archie Duke shot an ostrich ‘cause he was hungry” in Blackadder Goes Forth (BBC, 1989).
The Beau Ideal strengthens Sassoon’s argument immensely. It tells the tale of Rose, who once dreamt of her ‘Beau Ideal’ and describes who she would have considered her perfect beauty. He would have been the stereotypical idea of beauty - “Belvidere Apollos”( 4), strong, virile, brave and beautiful. Alliteration emphasises that he must be “full of verve and vigour”(12), ironically not at all what an injured soldier would be. This is where the poem changes. Half way through the second stanza the theme changes from fantasy - “a maggot in her brain”(15) to reality - “Germany has killed it”(16), similar to Sassoon, she mocks Roses’ fantasies, utilising the German reference to strengthen the reality, she personifies Germany and uses metonymy. The next two stanzas go on to describe what Rose, now finds attractive. The “sound in wind and limb” (17) now signifies weakness and cowardice. A worthy man must now bear the “cicatrices”(21) to prove his manliness. The last four lines of the poem are very controversial:
“Who buys her an engagement ring
And finds her kind and kissing,
Must have one member in a sling
Or, preferably missing.” (29-32)
The comedic tone feels wrong considering the implication. Not surprisingly, poems like this would have angered serving soldiers and anti-war protesters. The poem makes light of the atrocities and glorifies the actions of war by challenging the manhood of those who do not fight and have no visible war wounds. It is highly rhetorical in a very playful way. It’s happy, comedic theme starkly contrasts with the sombre, bitter mood of Sassoon’s poem.
Helen Hamilton is not a very well known poet. Very little is known about her, except that she was a schoolteacher who enjoyed rock climbing (Reilly, 1997). Her war poems demonstrate an alliance with poets like Sassoon, however, unlike Sassoon, it is assumed that she lacked personal experience of the trenches. Her poem, The Jingo-Women (1917), was a direct attack on women like Pope and the White Feather Brigade, a group of women who organised mass sign up events prior to conscription, and defended the men they ridiculed.
The Romancing Poet is a monologue written in the same tone as Glory of Women. It supports Sassoon’s view yet challenges it. Hamilton writes in the form of non-rhyming, free-verse. In the first instance she uses enjambment but switches to short, sharp sentences intended to emphasise her point and draw the target in. It reads like a personal address to a specific person. Line three mocks the talent of the poet she speaks to, and the satirical theme continues throughout the poem. She mocks the content of the poetry of her offender:
“If you have words –
Fit words, I mean,
Not your usual stock in trade,
Of tags and clichés –
To hymn such greatness,
Use them.
But have you?
Anyone can babble.
If you must wax descriptive,
Do get the background right,
A little right!” (11-21)
Like Sassoon she uses words like “blood”, “filth” and “horrors” (23) to prompt imagery in the reader, emphasised by the rule of three. In line 29, again like Sassoon, she makes religious references with a paradox “doomed to be crucified”(28) - doomed conjures thoughts of hell while crucified alludes to Christ’s martyrdom. The poem, at this point, seems to address both Sassoon and its original target. Hamilton supports Sassoon, pleading for the glorification of war to cease. The last line of the poem directly responds to Sassoon’s poem “We are not Glory-snatchers!” This emphasises that although she supports Sassoon, he must not stereotype women as ignorant and apathetic.
In conclusion, these three poems demonstrate the poems’ ability to create empathy in the reader. In Sassoon and Hamilton’s poems the reader can visualise the horrors of trench warfare. Pope’s poem has a rhetorical function and it is easy to see why works like these were fundamental recruitment tools. However, Pope was not the villain she has been portrayed as over the years; she was probably as naive as the men she seduced. One professor says, “I sometimes feel that of all the victims of the war, the one we should feel sorriest for is poor old Jessie Pope” (Simmers, 2009). It is important to keep in context the topic of these poems; discussing war will always provoke differences of opinion. Some will be supported by allies, attacking common enemies. In this instance Hamilton and Sassoon are allies, ironic given Sassoon’s bitterness towards women, but the work of poets like Pope created a common enemy. A poem works in a rhetorical manner, manipulating the feelings of the reader, it works because of its relationship with the reader, not the author, so on that basis all three poems are similar.
“Poetry is not the turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from it”
Emily Dickinson, 1886
Bibliography:
Poems taken from the following sources:
Siegfried Sassoon - Glory Of Women:
Stallworthy, Jon. 1988. The Oxford Book of War Poetry. Edition. Oxford Paperbacks.
Helen Hamilton - The Romancing Poet:
Reilly, Catherine, 1997. The Virago Book of Women’s War Poetry and Verse. Omnibus Edition. Virago Press Ltd.
Jessie Pope - The Beau Ideal:
Walter, George. 2007. The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry (Penguin Classics). Edition. Penguin Classics.
Essay references:
Abrams, Greenblat et al. 1993. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2. 6th Edition. W W Norton & Co Inc. London
BBC. 1989. Blackadder Goes Forth. [Online Video]. Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk37TD_08eA. [Accessed: 30 April 2011].
Campbell, Patrick. 2007. Siegfried Sassoon: A Study of the War Poetry. McFarland. North Carolina.
Dickinson, Emily. 1886 Quote by Emily Dickinson: [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/148356. [Accessed 25 April 2011].
Hart, Peter J. 2010. "The White Feather Campaign: A Struggle with Masculinity During World War I." Student Pulse Academic Journal 2.02. Available at: http://www.studentpulse.com/a?id=151 [Accessed 25 April 2011]
Potter, Jane. 2008 ‘Pope, Jessie (1868–1941)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2008 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/98109, [accessed 25 April 2011]
Searching... Simmer, George. 2009. Poor Old Jessie Pope: Great War Fiction. [ONLINE] Available at: http://greatwarfiction.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/poor-old-jessie-pope/. [Accessed 25 April 2011].
Trueman, Chris. 2011. History Learning Site. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/siegfired_sassoon.htm. [Accessed 25 April 2011]
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