Wider reading

Jessie Pope

·         Jessie Pope is a World War One poet and is female quiet contradictory to the male dominant poems in Gardener’s ‘Up the Line to Death’.

·         Her poem ‘The Call’ depicts the men going off to war in a patriotic manner suggested by images such as ‘banners and rolling drums’; her poetry may be regarded as propaganda with its romanticized war and victorious tone further implied by the repetition of ‘will you’ which encourages the idea that the men should fight for their country; it is their duty.

·         Who’s for the trench—
Are you, my laddie?
Who’ll follow French—
Will you, my laddie?
Who’s fretting to begin,
Who’s going out to win?
And who wants to save his skin—
Do you, my laddie?Who’s for the khaki suit—
Are you, my laddie?
Who longs to charge and shoot—
Do you, my laddie?
Who’s keen on getting fit,
Who means to show his grit,
And who’d rather wait a bit—
Would you, my laddie?

Who’ll earn the Empire’s thanks—
Will you, my laddie?
Who’ll swell the victor’s ranks—
Will you, my laddie?
When that procession comes,
Banners and rolling drums—
Who’ll stand and bite his thumbs—
Will you, my laddie?

·         Her work was often contributed to The Punch and The Daily Mail which further implies her work is patriotic propaganda. Owen’s poem Dulce Et Decorum Est  was aimed at Pope as her reputation had faded into obscurity as Graves and Sassoon began to play a more prominent role in World War One Poetry.

All Quiet On the Western Front

·         It is written from a German perspective.

·         An overview: There are several German boys in a class and their teacher advices them to go off to war; note these boys are seventeen to eighteen. They go off to war and the story is of them going off to war and one by one being wiped out. Poignantly it ends with death of the last soldier from the class with the report filed as all quiet on the Western Front.

·         Initially the soldiers are presented as patriotic but as war worsens they become more distant and angry towards war treating it with contempt.

·         Interestingly, the novel focuses around these seven characters which adds individualism to the novel and adds a personal level to the book making the audience all the ore drawn in.

Her Privates We

·         The novel is set on the Western Front which exposes its audience to much destruction and warfare much like Birdsong. Despite this, elements of the soldiers being bored in battle are described quite different from some of the previous portrayals that have been given in other novels.

·         The language throughout is violent which words such as ‘obliterated’; at times Manning uses bad language to grasp the complete horrors of war and exploit the situation.