British Literature after 1900 2021/22 © Piotr Matczak

GEORGIAN AND WAR POETRY

VICTORIAN PERIOD (BACKGROUND INFORMATION)

• the golden age of British novel, the time of thriving culture and art
• capitalism, poverty and the Industrial Revolution
• mechanization of human personality (D.J. Lawrence) – no human and spiritual values are needed
for the workers in the era of industrialism, Dickens refers to the labor workers as the Hands in Hard Times
(signaling that their only purpose is the manual work they do)
• utilitarianism – a man needs to be useful, to bring profit, a man is like a tool
• realistic novel – an attempt to copy the real, to mirror the reality
• poetry: usually less direct than prose, more spiritual and elusive, and not so directly attached
to the real world – hence the poets in the Victorian Period struggled to fit in the realistic convention
and resorted to supernatural, imaginary world

GEORGIAN POETRY (1912-1922)

• the term refers to a series of anthologies showing the English school of poetry during the reign of King
George V (1910-1936) – the title of the anthologies was Georgian Poetry
• post-Romantic tradition: emotions, nature, folk stories, supernaturality and love
• escape into an imaginary world – because poets found it difficult to observe the realistic conventions,
they did not want to describe the harsh reality in their poetry
• rural escapades & harshness of modern times
• turning towards the past – looking for something that is gone, reaffirmation
• melancholy, sentimentalism and parochialism (narrow-mindedness, a limited outlook on something
– focusing on small sections rather then on the whole entity)

WALTER DE LA MARE (1873-1956)

• an English poet, short story writer and novelist

• best known for his works for children and the poem The Listeners
• wrote also psychological horror stories (Seaton’s Aunt, All Hallows)
• funfact: he disliked his name Walter and preferred to be called Jack
• worked in the statistics department in an office and wrote after hours
• died of a coronary thrombosis in 1956 (he had another one in 1947)
• his poetry: similar to the Romantics, freedom of imagination,
supernaturality, puzzlement caused by the world, child intuition
British Literature after 1900 2021/22 © Piotr Matczak

THE LISTENERS (1912)

The poem begins with the speaker designing the Traveller and his horse.
They are at the door of a house on which the Traveller is knocking. He is expecting
to be greeted by someone, but no one answers his calls. The narrative moves
inside the house where a certain presence resides. There are phantoms within
the empty building. They listen well to the Traveller.

The Traveller can, to some extent, sense them there. He calls out a number
of strange phrases that add to the mystery of the poem, and then finally leaves
without an answer.

• romantic tradition – Georgian poetry made vast use of the figures and rhetorical devices popularized
by the Romantics: supernaturality, escapism, nature and countryside themes and emotions;
all of them are described in detail below
• supernaturality – the Traveler in the poem arrives at a secluded cottage in the forest and knocks
at the door; nobody responds, but there are some mysterious spirits present inside who listen in silence
to his attempts; what is more, the Traveler is aware of their presence and feels puzzled (perplexed)
by the situation (what is even more interesting, having realized the listeners are inside, he doubles
his attempts to get to them by knocking before he gives up)
• emotions – the poem puts a great emphasis on them, pointing out the Traveler’s anxiety, uncertainty,
and finally puzzlement mixed with fear when he discovers there are some spirits in the house
and they do not want to answer the door; he does not understand why he is being ignored, because,
as he states, he kept his word and came; puzzled and confused, the Traveler eventually gives up and leaves
• loneliness/isolation – the Traveler is the only certain character in the poem, and he is alone in the forest;
he seeks contact and attention and tries to get to the house, but – unfortunately – he is ignored and fails;
the leading interpretation of the poem states that the Traveler is a poet who wants to reach the public
with his poetry, but nobody is ready and willing to listen to him, so he is left out of the society
• escapism – escapism is mental diversion from unpleasant or boring aspects of daily life, typically through
activities involving imagination or entertainment; the beginning of the 20th century is the time
of industrialization, mundane, hard lives for many and endless labor to make a living; in the view of harsh
reality, the poets did not want to write poems about it, hence they resorted to the fields of imagination
and supernaturality; the poem gives off the eerie, mysterious atmosphere, and seems to be set
in the distant, medieval-like past; this whole impression is deepened by the Listeners: some spiritual
beings who flee further recognition
• descriptions of nature and the countryside – this is another distinctive Romantic feature adapted
by the Georgian poets: the descriptions of nature seem to be similar to the Victorian poetry of Browning
or (especially) Lord Tennyson (what is symptomatic is that de la Mare lived in the same street as Lord
Tennyson a century before – THAT’S REALLY AMAZING AND MIND-BLOWING); description of the setting
in the poem matches this feature, there are many evocative adjectives: on the moonlit door, of the forest’s
British Literature after 1900 2021/22 © Piotr Matczak

ferny floor, No head from the leaf-fringed sill; the descriptions are sensual to some extent, and they activate
not only sight, but also hearing (ferny floor, smote on the door) and touch (cropping the dark turf)
• idealization of rural settings – like the Romantics, Georgian poets find tranquility and peacefulness
in the countryside; similarly to Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, they tend to set their poems in some distant,
quiet locations in the wilderness, far away from the urban areas; The Listeners is set in the forest,
and there is only one cottage there; the Traveler had traveled a long way to reach it, and having failed
to enter the cottage he returned into the woods
• the past vs. the present – The Listeners employ spiritual beings who are clearly from the past –
they are gone at the time of speaking; this brings the reader back to some uncertain times in the past,
when they were alive; given the interpretation in which the Traveler is a poet to whom nobody is willing
to listen, de la Mare hints that although in the present there are no listeners, they used to live in the past
which was clearly better in that circumstances; moreover, the whole poem is stylized as if it was set
in the past, because the Traveler uses a horse and looks a bit like a knight; the whole notion of the past
vs. the present must bring us back to the reality of the 1910s – hard time for people of labor, and hard
time for poetry as well

WAR POETRY (1914-1917)

• reference time in this context is World War One (1914-1917) in which the UK (still as the British Empire
with all its colonies) participated actively, fighting the Central Powers (especially Germany); during
the war the UK lost around 900,000 soldiers
• main themes: patriotism, grief, love for the mother country, commemoration. hope – BUT ALSO criticism
of the military activities, condemnation of the idea of war, frowning upon over-patriotic people
devoting their lives for the country
• two different currents of poetry: patriotic verse (Rupert Brooke) vs. anti-war poetry (Siegfried
Sassoon, Wilfried Owen)

RUPERT BROOKE (1887-1915)

• an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during
the First World War
• described as the handsomest young man in England by W.B. Yeats –
boyish good looks
• initially, he wrote poetry (including patriotic poetry in the newspapers)
– it gained him interest of high figures (such as Winston Churchill)
and then he was granted a place in the army as a sub-lieutenant
(he was 27)
• (okay, I know it’s gonna me super mean, but please excuse
me for this one – Rupert truly was a stupid idealist and had a bad
British Literature after 1900 2021/22 © Piotr Matczak

influence on his readers) died shortly after having been taken to the army, but not in a battle:
he developed sepsis after having been bitten by a mosquito and died in April 1917 – maybe luckily,
he did not realize how terrible the war is
• best known for patriotic poetry, preferably structured into a sonnet (because a sonnet expresses love,
love for England) and full of pathos

THE SOLDIER (1914)

If I die in the war, I want to be remembered in a particular way. Think

of how the far-off land on which I die will have a small piece
of England forever. That earth will be enriched by my dead body,
because my body is made from dirt born in England. England created
me and gave me consciousness, gave me her blooming plants to fall
in love with, and gave me my sense of freedom. My body belongs
to England, has always breathed English air. England's rivers
cleansed me, and I was blessed by England's sun.

Also consider the way in which my soul, through death, will be made pure. My consciousness will return
to the immortal consciousness like a beating pulse, and return the beautiful thoughts that England gave me.
I'll return the sights and sounds of my home country; to the beautiful dreams that were as happy as England's
daytime; and to the laughter shared with English friends. And I'll return England's gentleness, which lives
in the English minds that are at peace under the English sky (the English heaven where I will be at peace
too when I die).

• patriotic verse, structured into a sonnet, evoking positive emotions such as love for England,
eagerness to sacrifice one’s life for the country, the necessity and will to take part in the war
• being part of something bigger – Brooke in his poem underestimates the role of individuals,
and the soldier from the poem desires to devote himself for England; he seems to be obsessed
with the idea of war and doing great deeds for the country, and in fact he lacks any distinctive
and personal features; what counts for him is the country and only the country counts
• romanticizing the war and the death for the country – it is a problematic issue of Brooke and other
patriotic poets of the WWI: they seem not to notice that war is a terrible, devastating experience
for hundreds of people who may not return home and dies during it; while the reality of trenches
and months of tremendous conditions (remember that WWI was mostly a war of wait, when soldiers
could spend weeks in the same trench waiting for the move of the opponent), Brooke (who had never
participated in military activities) describes war as the higher necessity, something that is good and noble
to take part in due to the love for England
• criticism: dominant mood of patriotic zeal, romantic aura of the war; Philip Larkin, when asked
to comment on Brooke, wrote: never such innocence again – meaning that Brooke was gullible,
and what is worse – his words inspired others to be gullible and naïve as well
• in other poems: war is cleansing, it gives a sense of direction – an opportunity to become a genuine man
British Literature after 1900 2021/22 © Piotr Matczak

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

• an English poet, writer and solider, was born in the influential

Jewish Sassoon family
• took part in WWI as a soldier, and was later decorated
with the Military Cross for bravery (note the difference: Brooke
never tasted the war, and Sassoon was an active soldier –
compare their attitudes toward war)
• made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in 1917
(Soldier’s Declaration) and was sent to a military psychiatric
hospital
• Wilfried Owen was greatly influenced by Sassoon, whom he met
in the psychiatric hospital
• died in 1967 at the age of 80 from stomach cancer
• his poetry is mostly anti-war and satirical, criticizing on the idea of war

THEY (1917)

In the first stanza of They, Sassoon quotes a Bishop telling the people
of England that when their brave soldiers return from war, they will
be different because they’ve fought a just war against the Anti-Christ,
and against Death himself.

In the second stanza, the boys returning from war reply: yes, we are
different from the boys who left for war, because we’ve been maimed
and blinded in the fighting and some of us will never walk or see
again. You’d be hard-pushed to find a man who’d been to war who
hadn’t been changed for the worse. But all the Bishop can say
in response is a variation of the non-explanation: God moves
in mysterious ways’

• an anti-war poem that is a satirical way criticizes on the idea of war an idealizing it (it is also a satire
on religious fanatism: The ways of God are strange!)
• hypocrisy – Sassoon wants to point out double standards of the authorities who never take part
in battles, but it does not stop them from the pro-war propaganda in states and churches; the bishop
knows literally nothing about what the war looks like (compare to Brooke and his naïve looks at the war),
but he actively praises the need to fight and describes the boys who have gone to the war as different,
but in a positive way (because they fight Anti-Christ, or whatsoever this stupid man preaches)
• simple language – Sassoon’s aim was to write direct poetry, he wanted to expose hypocrisy in a simple,
obvious way; the poem is structured into a dialogue with some comments and didascalies
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WILFRIED OWEN

• an English poet and soldier, one of the leading poets of the WWI
• his poetry presents the horrors of trenches and gas warfare,
basically the tragedy of the war
• much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon, standing
in contrast to the public perception of war and to the confidently
patriotic verse written by e.g. Rupert Brooke
• his most famous poem is Anthem for Doomed Youth, but he also
wrote Dulce et Decorum Est
• died in action in 1918 in France, one week before the signing
of the Armistice which ended the war (his mother received
the telegram informing her of his death on Armistice Day – okay
that is heartbreaking, the motif of the grieving mother is one of the most touching for me in literature;
oh, his mother also chose an epitaph on his grave coming from his poetry: Shall life renew these bodies?
Of a truth all death will he annul)
• W.B. Yeats turned out to be a dick for him: Owen admired him, and Yeats excluded Owen from his Oxford
Book of Modern Verse, saying that Owen was all blood, dirt, and sucked sugar stick, unworthy of the poet’s
corner of a country newspaper. In all the great tragedies, tragedy is a joy to the man who dies… If war
is necessary in our time and place, it is best to forget its suffering as we do the discomfort of fever.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

The speaker begins with a description of soldiers, bent under the weight
of their packs like beggars, their knees unsteady, coughing like poor
and sick old women, and struggling miserably through a muddy
landscape. They turn away from the light flares (a German tactic
of briefly lighting up the area in order to spot and kill British soldiers),
and begin to march towards their distant camp. The men are so tired
that they seem to be sleeping as they walk. Many have lost their combat
boots, yet continue on despite their bare and bleeding feet. The soldiers
are so worn out they are essentially disabled; they don't see anything
at all. They are tired to the point of feeling drunk, and don't even notice
the sound of the dangerous poison gas-shells dropping just behind them.

Somebody cries out an urgent warning about the poison gas, and the soldiers fumble with their gas masks, getting them
on just in time. One man, however, is left yelling and struggling, unable to get his mask on. The speaker describes
this man as looking like someone caught in fire or lime (an ancient chemical weapon used to effectively blind
opponents). The speaker then compares the scene – through the panes of his gas-mask and with poison gas filling the air
– to being underwater, and imagines the soldier is drowning.
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The speaker jumps from the past moment of the gas attack to a present moment sometime afterward, and describes
a recurring dream that he can't escape, in which the dying soldier races toward him in agony.

The speaker directly addresses the audience, suggesting that if readers could experience their own such suffocating
dreams (marching behind a wagon in which the other men have placed the dying soldier, seeing the writhing of the dying
soldier's eyes in an otherwise slack and wrecked face, and hearing him cough up blood from his ruined lungs at every
bump in the path – a sight the speaker compares to the horror of cancer and other diseases that ravage even the innocent),
they would not so eagerly tell children, hungry for a sense of heroism, the old lie that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's
country.

• anti-war poetry & irony – the last two lines and the title is ironic, and it criticizes on idealizing the honor
of dying for the country; the speaker is aware of the horrors of the war (possibly because Owen was an active
soldier and saw a lot), and he disagrees with people who romanticize the sacrifice for the country (cf. Brooke);
Dulce et Decorum Est is the first part of the Latin phrase: Dulce et Decorum Est pro Patria Mori which means
It is Sweet and Fitting to Die for One’s Country, and the speaker directly calls it a lie (the whole poem
is constructed around the tedious war walk and a soldier dying directly in front of the speaker)
• poetic, figurative language – in comparison to Sassoon, Owen’s lines are more elaborate and descriptive,
and make greater use of rhetorical figures; they are certainly more descriptive, probably to present the war
scenery more evocatively; it is a paradox, because the war environment is associated with simple, even rough-
even lines which convey the brutality and hardships of war – and yet we have Owen with his descriptive
language
• the reality of war – Owen was a soldier himself and took part in action in France (he died there); the poem
describes a scene in which exhausted soldiers are marching toward their camp and there is gas warfare flying
around them; a shocking scene, and the most important in the poem, is the death of one of the soldiers –
so traumatic for the speaker that it appears in his nightmares; the point Owen is trying to make is to show the real
war, not the romanticized illusion presented by the so-called patriots – horrible, strenuous, full of death
and misery