Jessie Pope (19 March 1868 – 14 December 1941) was an English poet, writer, and journalist, who remains best known for her patriotic, motivational poems published during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

.''Minds at War'' the Poetry and Experience of the First world War', William Coupar , Saxon Books, 1996.

Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...

wrote his 1917 poem '' Dulce et Decorum est'' to Pope, whose literary reputation has faded into relative obscurity as those of

war poet War poetry is poetry on the topic of war. While the term is applied especially to works of the First World War, the term can be applied to poetry about any war, including Homer's ''Iliad'', from around the 8th century BC as well as poetry of th ...

s such as Owen and

Siegfried Sassoon Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...

have grown.

Early career

Born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, she was educated at North London Collegiate School. She was a regular contributor to '' Punch'', ''

The Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the highest circulation of paid newspapers in the UK. Its sister paper ''The Mail on Sunday'' was launch ...

'' and ''

The Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'', also writing for '' Vanity Fair'',

Pall Mall Magazine ''The Pall Mall Magazine'' was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Begun by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of '' The Pall Mall Gazette'', the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, a ...

and '' The Windsor Magazine''.

Prose editor

A lesser-known literary contribution was Pope's discovery of

Robert Tressell Robert Phillipe Noonan (17 April 1870 – 3 February 1911), born Robert Croker, and best known by the pen name Robert Tressell, was an Irish writer best known for his novel '' The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists''. Tressell spent his early adu ...

's novel ''

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists ''The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists'' is a 1914 semi-autobiographical novel by Ireland, Irish house painter and sign writer Robert Noonan, who wrote the book in his spare time under the pen name Robert Tressell. Published after Tressell's de ...

'', when his daughter mentioned the manuscript to her after his death. Pope recommended it to her publisher, who commissioned her to abridge it before publication. The result was a standard working-class tragedy that

bowdlerized An expurgation of a work, also known as a bowdlerization, is a form of censorship that involves purging anything deemed noxious or offensive from an artistic work or other type of writing or media. The term ''bowdlerization'' is often used in th ...

the novel's original socialist political content.''The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'', Robert Tressell, introduction by Peter Miles, Oxford World's Classics, OUP, 2005
Google Books
/ref>

Verse

Other works include ''Water Pellets'' (1907), an anthology of humorous verse. She also wrote verses for children's books, such as ''The Cat Scouts'' (Blackie, 1912) and the following

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

to her friend,

Bertram Fletcher Robinson Bertram Fletcher Robinson (22 August 1870 – 21 January 1907) was an English sportsperson, sportsman, journalist, editor, author and Liberal Unionist Party activist. During his life-time, he wrote at least three hundred items, including a ser ...

(published in the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

'' on Saturday 26 January 1907):

War poetry

Pope's war poetry was originally published in ''

''; it encouraged

enlistment Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

and the handing of a

white feather The white feather is a widely recognised propaganda symbol. The white feather was most prominently used in the 'White Feather Movement, white feather movement' in Britain during the First World War, in which women gave white feathers to non-en ...

to youths who would not join the colours. Nowadays, this poetry is considered to be

jingoistic Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national inter ...

, consisting of simple rhythms and rhyme schemes, with extensive use of rhetorical questions to persuade (and often pressure) young men to join the war. This extract from ''Who's for the Game?'' is typical in style: Other poems, such as ''The Call'' (1915) – "Who’s for the trench – Are you, my laddie?" – expressed similar sentiments. Pope was widely published during the war, apart from newspaper publication producing three volumes: ''Jessie Pope's War Poems'' (1915), ''More War Poems'' (1915) and ''Simple Rhymes for Stirring Times'' (1916).

Criticism

Her treatment of the subject is markedly in stark contrast to the anti-war stance of soldier poets such as

and

. Many of these men found her work distasteful, Owen in particular. His poem '' Dulce et Decorum Est'' was a direct response to her writing, originally dedicated "To Jessie Pope etc.". A later draft amended this as "To a certain Poetess", later being removed completely to turn the poem into a general reproach on anyone sympathetic to the war. Pope is prominently remembered first for her pro-war poetry, but also as a representative of homefront female propagandists such as Mrs Humphry Ward, May Wedderburn Cannan,

Emma Orczy Baroness Emma Orczy (full name: ''Emma Magdalena Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci'') (; 23 September 1865 – 12 November 1947), usually known as Baroness Orczy (the name under which she was published) or to her family and friends ...

, and entertainers such as

Vesta Tilley Matilda Alice Powles, Lady de Frece (13May 186416September 1952) was an English music hall performer. She adopted the stage name Vesta Tilley and became one of the best-known male impersonators of her era. Her career lasted from 1869 until 19 ...

. In particular, the poem "War Girls", similar in structure to her pro-war poetry, states how "No longer caged and penned up/They're going to keep their end up/Until the khaki soldier boys come marching back". Though largely unknown at the time, the

War poet War poetry is poetry on the topic of war. While the term is applied especially to works of the First World War, the term can be applied to poetry about any war, including Homer's ''Iliad'', from around the 8th century BC as well as poetry of th ...

s like Nichols, Sassoon and Owen, as well as later writers such as

Edmund Blunden Edmund Charles Blunden (1 November 1896 – 20 January 1974) was an English poet, author, and critic. Like his friend Siegfried Sassoon, he wrote of his experiences in World War I in both verse and prose. For most of his career, Blunden was als ...

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

, and

Richard Aldington Richard Aldington (born Edward Godfree Aldington; 8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962) was an English writer and poet. He was an early associate of the Imagist movement. His 50-year writing career covered poetry, novels, criticism and biography. He ed ...

, have come to define the experience of the First World War.

Reappraisal

Pope's work is today often presented in schools and anthologies as a counterpoint to the work of the War Poets, a comparison by which her pro-war work suffers both technically and politically. Some writers have attempted a partial re-appraisal of her work as an early pioneer of English

women in the workforce Since the Industrial Revolution, participation of women in the workforce outside the home has increased in industrialized nations, with particularly large growth seen in the 20th century. Largely seen as a boon for industrial society, women ...

, while still critical of both the content and artistic merit of her war poetry. Reminded that Pope was primarily a humourist and writer of light verse, her success in publishing and journalism during the pre-war era, when she was described as the "foremost woman humourist" of her day has been overshadowed by her propagandistic war poems. Her verse has been mined for sympathetic portrayals of the poor and powerless, of women urged to be strong and self-reliant. Her portrayal of the

Suffragettes A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for women's suffrage, the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in part ...

in a pair of counterpointed 1909 poems makes a case both for and against their actions.

Later life

After the war, Pope continued to write, penning a short novel, poems—many of which continued to reflect upon the war and its aftermath—and books for children. She married a widower bank manager in 1929, when she was 61, and moved from London to Fritton, near

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

. She died in December 1941 in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

.Jane Potter, 'Pope, Jessie (1868–1941)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn, Oxford University Press, Oct 200
accessed 12 Nov 2008
/ref>

References

External links

* * * ''Who's for the Game''? at WikiSource
Dulce et Decorum est
document f316r, Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive *
Jessie Pope
on Poeticous {{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, Jessie 1868 births 1941 deaths English women poets English World War I poets Writers from Leicester People educated at North London Collegiate School 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers People from Suffolk (before 1974)