Talk:Jessie Pope
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. | ||
| Start | This article has been rated as start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] | ||
 |
This article is supported by the Military work group. | ||
 |
It is requested that a picture or pictures of this person be included in this article to improve its quality. |
 |
An appropriate infobox may need to be added to this article, or the current infobox may need to be updated. Please refer to the list of biography infoboxes for further information. |
"pro-war poets such as Owen"
I don't know enough about Owen to say whether he was pro-war or anti-war; having read only Dulce et... I can't say whether he was against war, or just against the glorification of war. If I was going to edit this page, I'd change it to "other war-poets such as Owen", or something like that. Does someone else want to step up?
I would say that Wilfred Owen was a bit stuck up but was definitely anti-war or simply horrified by war. I do not believe that there was a substantial body of "anti-war" poetry in evidence before WWI, leaving Owen and Sassoon little in the way of "antiwar" mentors. This freedom allowed for the natural growth of Owen's writing. What is interesting about Owen is the evolution of his poetry both before and during the war. In his early poetry before the war (and before his combat exposure) he was very enamored with the "idea" of men in combat. "The shining of the bayonets/of men on parade..." etc. This style of poetry continued on until he encountered the brutality of trench warfare where his poetry evolved into "Strange Meeting", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", and "Dulce et Decorum est". What makes Owen an "anti-war" poet is his desire to tell the "truth" of War with such lines as "What passing-bells for those who die as cattle?/Only the monstrous anger of the guns/only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle". These lines sought to counteract the nationalistic poetry being published in Great Britain by poets such as Jessie Pope who, in her defense, could not have truly known what was going on overseas such was the government blackout of information regarding the War. In summary, Owen was an "anti-war" poet in the sense that he was trying to refute the historical notion that war was a glorious exercise of men against men in a mighty struggle. Moreover, his poetry, at times was a direct refutation of other poets who sought to perpetuate the nationalistic sin of "Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori."
In some peoples opinion, Jessie Pope should not have been able to publish poems as she had no idea what it was like to really be in the trenches. _____________________________________________________________________
"There is a small, relatively unknown movement which is critical of the current consensus regarding Pope's poetry."
Please source this! I want to know more about her defenders and what they have to say. Jessie Pope, while appalling in her sentiments (at least from a 21st-century perspective), seems to me a not untypical representative of the white-feather brigade so common during WWI. She was a highly successful poet and her doggerel clearly struck a chord, at least among women. Let's hear more.
[edit] Unsourced / marriage
In 1930, at age 60, she married a retired bank manager named Edward Lenton, and died in Devon in 1941.
Still unsourced after a year. I vaguely remember there being some unreliable (i.e. forum) citation for this, but I can't find anything now. Gordonofcartoon (talk) 02:22, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
