A Recuperative Study

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

A Recuperative Study Georgianism Then and Now­ A Recuperative Study James Richard Bridges A thesis submitted to the University of Gloucestershire in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities September 2001 Abstract The thesis attempts to revise our view of Georgian poetry, and thus to rescue it from the critical disregard and disdain it has suffered since the 1930s. Georgian poetry will be redefined as a strong traditional poetry contemporaneous with, and yet different from, literary Modernism. An historical overview of the critical literature from the 1920s onwards will reveal the original co-existence of those now known as 'Georgians' and 'Modernists', stress their mutual break with Edwardian conventions, and will sketch the process by which Georgianism and Modernism became oppositional. Georgianism will be re-evaluated as a brave and creditable attempt to continue the Romantic and humanistic impulse in poetry at a time when younger and ostensibly more radical writers were forsaking it for the values of Modernism. The thesis will further suggest that the Georgian poets had a rather more socially aware and progressive agenda than many of the fledgling Modernists. Georgian poetry is reread, therefore, in order to bring out, as major themes, its concern with the poor and with work, with the changing environment of the nation, with the position of women in Georgian society, and with its response to the First World War. This reappraisal will lead to the contention that Georgianism should not be viewed as a low point in British poetry, but instead as supplying the formal foundations and political sensibility which mark the achievement of Great War poetry. While the thesis is careful not to overbid its claims for reviewing the Georgians' own achievement (especially in respect of their relative lack of formal experimentation compared to the Modernists), it hopes nevertheless to persuade its readers that the poets of 'Liberal England' had a more humane and realistic vision of their world than they have hitherto been credited with. Contents Introduction - 1. Defining Georgianism 1 11. A Genuine Revival: Origins and Trajectory 9 iii. Georgians and Modernists as Contemporaries 16 The Dream that Failed: Problematic Romanticism 33 and the Art of the Georgians - 1. Experience 36 11. Imagination, Dream and Psyche 39 111. Nature and Epiphany 50 IV. The Magic of Words 56 v. Humanism and Memory 67 Georgian Poetry: Real and Imagined Englands - 79 i. Masefield, Davies, de la Mare, Flecker 81 ii. Gibson, Abercrombie, Bottomley, Drinkwater, Thomas 94 lll. Brooke, Monro. 120 'That Pleasant Inn Called Woman': Representations of 134 Women in Georgianism - 1. Masefield, Davies, Thomas 136 11. Bottomley, Brooke, Flecker, Gibson, Abercrombie, Drinkwater 144 'We Willed It Not': The War and the Georgian Poets - 169 1. Masefield, de la Mare, Davies, Monro, Thomas 171 11. The 'Heroic Lapse': Brooke and Flecker 186 lll. Drinkwater, Abercrombie, Gibson 190 IV. The War Poets and Georgianism 202 Conclusion 229 '" '" '" Appendix 1 Bibliography 84 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Peter Widdowson and John Hughes, for their invaluable guidance and advice. Steve Bailey of the Dymock Poets Archive and Study Centre at the University of Gloucestershire gave important help with reprographics and access to material, as did the staff at the Bodleian Library at Oxford and the Brotherton Library of Leeds. My membership of the Friends of the Dymock Poets has proved both fruitful and interesting. Jeff Cooper assisted with some useful ideas and leads with regard to his grandfather, Lascelles Abercrombie. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their unflinching support in the course of the thesis. Author's Declaration I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations of the University of Gloucestershire and is original except where indicated by specific reference in the text. No part of the thesis has been submitted as part of any other academic award. The thesis has not been presented to any other education institution in the United Kingdom or overseas. Any views expressed in the thesis are those of the author and in no way represent those of the college. 1 Introduction i. Defining Georgianism The term 'Georgian' was used by Edward Marsh as the title of a poetry anthology that he himself edited and promoted between 1912 and 1922, and which Harold Monro published at the Poetry Bookshop. There were five Georgian Poetry collections, the poets within them once seeming daring and controversial, and even to represent the future of English poetry. Now, however, 'Georgian' is a derogatory term, usually used to denote uninspired and trivial rural poetry. From the 1930s onwards, there have been many studies that have dismissed Georgian poetry as weak, derivative, bland and escapist. In New Bearings in English Poetry (1932), F .R. Leavis bewailed 'the vacuity of the Georgians,.1 C. Day Lewis in A Hope for Poetry (1934) described them as 'a sadly pedestrian rabble'.2 In Modern Poetry (1938), Louis MacNeice claimed that 'the Georgians had no world-view',3 and that they were 'rightly determined to be less "literary" than their predecessors but, dropping literature, they had not the strength to take up life'. 4 The views of these critics were fashioned from a shared climate. Poets and critics of the 1930s were heavily influenced by T.S. Eliot, and also by Auden and his associates. Although these two influences differ politically, they are nevertheless both 'political' in outlook. In short, social engagement was considered vital for poets, and failure to address the issues of the day was damning. But did the Georgians truly lack this engagement with social issues, and awareness of a wider society? - this is the question my thesis will centrally address. 2 Past studies of the Georgians have attempted to re-assess them in more general terms, but for me, this most fundamental of questions remains unanswered. It is my contention that these poets did address modernity, but mainly in the verse forms of an older poetic tradition. This prompts an inevitable question: does modem experience need to be expressed in Modernist verse forms? The achievement of poets of the 1950s, such as Larkin and Betjeman, has made this question more difficult. Philip Hobsbaum in Tradition and Experiment in English Poetry (1979) claims that John Betjeman 'did what no Georgian ever really managed: married a modem sensibility to a Victorian verse technique'.s For much of this thesis, it will be argued that what Betjeman allegedly managed was frequently the very essence of the Georgian achievement. This reassessment of the Georgians leads back to the question of re­ contextual ising them. In 1973, Donald Davie famously argued that the dominant influence in British poetry was not Yeats, Eliot or Pound, but Thomas Hardy. Davie's Thomas Hardy and British Poetry does not examine the Georgians, but the place of these poets in the indigenously English, non-Modernist line of poetry will receive some consideration here. Hardy is occasionally considered in connection with the Georgian poets (he himself had reservations about the label these younger writers adopted), but there are several points of comparison in matters of verse form, attitudes to nature, the English regions and the English people which require further exploration. While James Reeves, in his introduction to Georgian Poetry (1962), described Hardy as 'a father figure to the Georgians', 6 this is an avenue that has been neglected. In most of the present study's chapters, the relevance of Hardy will be touched upon. A number of critics have connected the fall of the Georgians to the First World War, and argued that their brand of liberalism went out of fashion with the decline of Liberal politics. This claim was made as early as 1935 in George Dangerfield's The Strange Death ofLiberal England. In some quarters, however, this has been the grounds 3 for measured re-assessment. C.K. Stead's The New Poetic (1964) distanced the 'group of liberal intellectuals which congregated around Eddie Marsh in 1911' from both 'Imperial poets' like Kipling and Newbolt, and the poets of the London Mercury like Squire and Freeman. 7 Robert H. Ross's The Georgian Revolt (1965) denied that the Georgians were 'misty-eyed lark-lovers', and also contrasted the original generation with the rear-guard 'Neo-Georgians' of the Mercury.8 Even Riding and Graves's A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927), a book deeply hostile to the Georgians, admits this political dimension: 'Georgianism was an English dead movement contemporary with Imagism and politically affiliated with the then dominant Liberal party,.9 Similarly, Vivian de Sola Pinto's Crisis in English Poetry (1951), a book which is kinder to individual Georgians than to the movement itself, makes this connection: Georgian poetry, he says, 'represents that revival of English poetry which had accompanied the resurgence of Liberal England in the reign of Edward VII'.IO This point needs to be addressed more fully. Their humanitarianism - far more present in their verse than is commonly believed - has not had its due credit as a form of social criticism, and this study will seek to redress this. As John Butt was to reminisce of Lascelles Abercrombie, 'working with him was a humane and liberal education' .11 A 'Humane' and 'liberal' education is what the poetry of Abercrombie and other Georgians has to offer. The early twentieth-century 'Liberal Revival' is usually thought to include the novelists Wells, Bennett, Galsworthy and Forster, socialistic writers like Carpenter, Blatchford and Masterman, and the polemical Edwardian poets Chesterton and Belloc. The Georgian poets are the forgotten participants. It will be argued here that they should indeed be identified as liberals, but also as creditable poetic realists.
Recommended publications
  • Zukofsky), 736–37 , 742–43 Asian American Poetry As, 987–88 “ABC” (Justice), 809–11 “Benefi T” Readings, 1137–138 Abolitionism
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00336-1 - The Cambridge History of: American Poetry Edited by Alfred Bendixen and Stephen Burt Index More information Index “A” (Zukofsky), 736–37 , 742–43 Asian American poetry as, 987–88 “ABC” (Justice), 809–11 “benefi t” readings, 1137–138 abolitionism. See also slavery multilingual poetry and, 1133–134 in African American poetry, 293–95 , 324 Adam, Helen, 823–24 in Longfellow’s poetry, 241–42 , 249–52 Adams, Charles Follen, 468 in mid-nineteenth-century poetry, Adams, Charles Frances, 468 290–95 Adams, John, 140 , 148–49 in Whittier’s poetry, 261–67 Adams, L é onie, 645 , 1012–1013 in women’s poetry, 185–86 , 290–95 Adcock, Betty, 811–13 , 814 Abraham Lincoln: An Horatian Ode “Address to James Oglethorpe, An” (Stoddard), 405 (Kirkpatrick), 122–23 Abrams, M. H., 1003–1004 , 1098 “Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley, academic verse Ethiopian Poetess, Who Came literary canon and, 2 from Africa at Eight Year of Age, southern poetry and infl uence of, 795–96 and Soon Became Acquainted with Academy for Negro Youth (Baltimore), the Gospel of Jesus Christ, An” 293–95 (Hammon), 138–39 “Academy in Peril: William Carlos “Adieu to Norman, Bonjour to Joan and Williams Meets the MLA, The” Jean-Paul” (O’Hara), 858–60 (Bernstein), 571–72 Admirable Crichton, The (Barrie), Academy of American Poets, 856–64 , 790–91 1135–136 Admonitions (Spicer), 836–37 Bishop’s fellowship from, 775 Adoff , Arnold, 1118 prize to Moss by, 1032 “Adonais” (Shelley), 88–90 Acadians, poetry about, 37–38 , 241–42 , Adorno, Theodor, 863 , 1042–1043 252–54 , 264–65 Adulateur, The (Warren), 134–35 Accent (television show), 1113–115 Adventure (Bryher), 613–14 “Accountability” (Dunbar), 394 Adventures of Daniel Boone, The (Bryan), Ackerman, Diane, 932–33 157–58 Á coma people, in Spanish epic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain), poetry, 49–50 183–86 Active Anthology (Pound), 679 funeral elegy ridiculed in, 102–04 activist poetry.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Miscellany
    Literary Miscellany Including Recent Acquisitions. Catalogue 286 WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 TEMPLE STREET NEW HAVEN, CT. 06511 USA 203.789.8081 FAX: 203.865.7653 [email protected] www.reeseco.com TERMS Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described, but are consid- ered to be sent subject to approval unless otherwise noted. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements are made prior to shipment. All returns must be made conscientiously and expediently. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance are billed to all non-prepaid domestic orders. Orders shipped outside of the United States are sent by air or courier, unless otherwise requested, with full charges billed at our discretion. The usual courtesy discount is extended only to recognized booksellers who offer reciprocal opportunities from their catalogues or stock. We have 24 hour telephone answering and a Fax machine for receipt of orders or messages. Catalogue orders should be e-mailed to: [email protected] We do not maintain an open bookshop, and a considerable portion of our literature inven- tory is situated in our adjunct office and warehouse in Hamden, CT. Hence, a minimum of 24 hours notice is necessary prior to some items in this catalogue being made available for shipping or inspection (by appointment) in our main offices on Temple Street. We accept payment via Mastercard or Visa, and require the account number, expiration date, CVC code, full billing name, address and telephone number in order to process payment. Institutional billing requirements may, as always, be accommodated upon request.
    [Show full text]
  • SIBL. . V^'- ' / Proquest Number: 10096794
    -TÂ/igSEOBSIAW p o e t s : A. CBIIXCÆJEaaMIBA!ElûIif--CÆJ^ POETRY '' ARD POETIC THEORY. “ KATHARIKE COOKE. M. P h i l . , SIBL. v^'- ' / ProQuest Number: 10096794 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest. ProQuest 10096794 Published by ProQuest LLC(2016). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 SYNOPSIS. As the Introduction explains this thesis sets out to look at the Georgians* achievement in poetry in the light of their intentions as avowed in prose and their methods as exemplified hy their poems. This is chiefly a critical exercise hut history has heen used to clear away the inevitable distortion which results from looking at Georgian poetry after fifty years of Eliot- influenced hostility. The history of the movement is dealt with in Chapter 2. The next three chapters examine aspects of poetry which the Georgians themselves con­ sidered most interesting. Chapter 3 deals with form, Chapter 4 with diction and Chapter 5 with inspiration or attitude to subject matter. Chapter 6 looks at the aspect of Georgianism most commonly thought by later readers to define the movement, th a t is i t s subjects.
    [Show full text]
  • Lascelles Abercrombie: a Checklist © Jeff Cooper 1
    Lascelles Abercrombie: A Checklist © Jeff Cooper LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE Towards a complete checklist of his published writings Compiled by Jeff Cooper First published in Great Britain in 2004 by White Sheep Press Second edition published on-line in 2013; third edition, 2017 © 2013, 2017 Jeff Cooper All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced for publication or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. The rights of Jeff Cooper to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. PREFACE This is the third edition, with additions and amendments (and a renumbering), of the edition originally published in 2004 by White Sheep Press. The intention of this checklist is to list all of the writings published by Abercrombie (although there are almost certainly a large number of book reviews and articles for the Nation that have not been traced). However, without this essential building block, which puts his works into context, meaningful analysis and criticism of his work is difficult. This is a working document, and if you would like to help make it a definitive list, please send any amendments and additions to me at [email protected]. They will be incorporated in the list and acknowledged. The format of the checklist is chronological, in order of first publication in periodical and book form. It should be borne in mind that there is a bibliographical hierarchy: contributions to periodicals, then contributions to books, and finally principal books.
    [Show full text]
  • Eliot on the Poetry of His Contemporaries
    Time Present The Newsletter of the T. S. Eliot Society Number 85 Spring 2015 CONTENTS Eliot on the Poetry of His Contemporaries Essays: Eliot on the Poetry of His By Marjorie Perloff Contemporaries by Marjorie Perloff 1 Today, when the reviewing of new books of poetry is often little more than expanded blurb writing, singling out this or that volume from the Annie Dunn: An Eliot Society hundreds of slim collections that pour out from the small presses, it is the Pilgrimage greatest pleasure to read the hitherto uncollected book reviews by the young by Ronald Schuchard 2 T. S. Eliot, now available in Volume 1 of The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot: The Critical Edition, ed. Jewel Spears Brooker and Ronald Schuchard. Written Eliot Society Call for Papers 3 primarily for The Egoist, but also for such other journals as The New Statesman, Reviews these reviews and reflections on contemporary poetry present Eliot at his brilliant, learned, funny, and iconoclastic best. Poetry and Its Others: News, Consider Eliot’s reaction, in a 1918 omnibus review for , to a Prayer, Song, and the Dialogue of The Egoist Genres, by Jahan Ramazani lavishly produced poetry book by E. F. A. Geach and D. E. A. Wallace coyly Reviewed by T. Austin Graham 7 titled –Esques: The authors of –Esques trickle down a fine broad page in a pantoum, a Bequest from Eliot’s Library to roundel, a villanelle, occasionally pagan, mode of thirty years ago: Magdalene College, Cambridge Why then, O foolish Christ, Reviewed by M. E. J. Hughes 8 Didst thou keep tryst Out of Character: Modernism, With maudlin harlots wan Vitalism, Psychic Life, by Omri With glad things gone? Moses To which the obvious answer is, Why did you? Young poets ought to Reviewed by Corey Latta 12 be cheaply printed; such sumptuous pages deceive many innocent critics.
    [Show full text]
  • The Poetry of Siegfried Sassoon
    Durham E-Theses The poetry of siegfried sassoon Cumming, Deryck How to cite: Cumming, Deryck (1969) The poetry of siegfried sassoon, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10240/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk THE POEPRY OF SIEGPEIIED SASSOON Deryck Gtumning M.A. thesis University of Durham The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be. acknowledged. page Early Poems 1 II War Poems, 1915-1917 20 III Counter-Attack 64 IV Picture Show 102 V Poems of the Twenties 115 VI Poems of the Thirties 135 VII Poems of the Fifties I53 VIII Conclusion 167 Bibliography _Ch_cvpt_Gr_ On^ EAHLY POEflS Siegfried. S-J5soon "born in I8865 the cccond of thrrr sons of Alfred Ezrr, Sr.ssoon r,nd Thcrcsr.
    [Show full text]
  • (Mael 502) Semester Ii British Poetry Ii
    PROGRAMME CODE: MAEL 20 SEMESTER I BRITISH POETRY I (MAEL 502) SEMESTER II BRITISH POETRY II (MAEL 506) SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Uttarakhand Open University PROGRAMME CODE: MAEL 20 SEMESTER I BRITISH POETRY I (MAEL 502) SEMESTER II BRITISH POETRY II (MAEL 506) SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES Uttarakhand Open University Phone no. 05964-261122, 261123 Toll Free No. 18001804025 Fax No. 05946-264232, e-mail info @uou.ac.in http://uou.ac.in Board of Studies Prof. H. P. Shukla (Chairperson) Prof. S. A. Hamid (Retd.) Director Dept. of English School of Humanities Kumaun University Uttarakhand Open University Nainital Haldwani Prof. D. R. Purohit Prof. M.R.Verma Senior Fellow Dept. of English Indian Institute of Advanced Study Gurukul Kangri University Shimla, Himanchal Pradesh Haridwar Programme Developers and Editors Dr. H. P. Shukla Dr. Suchitra Awasthi (Coordinator) Professor, Dept. of English Assistant Professor Director, School of Humanities Dept. of English Uttarakhand Open University Uttarakhand Open University Unit Writers Dr. Suchitra Awasthi, Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani Semester I: Units 1,2,3,4,5, Semester II: Unit 7 Dr. Binod Mishra, IIT, Roorkee Semester I: Units 6,7,8,9 Dr. Preeti Gautam, Govt. P.G. College, Rampur Semester II: Units 1, 2 Mr. Rohitash Thapliyal, Graphic Era Hill University, Bhimtal Semester II: Units 3,4,5 Dr. Mohit Mani Tripathi, D.A.V. College, Kanpur Semester II: Unit 6 Edition: 2020 ISBN : 978-93-84632-13-7 Copyright: Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani Published by: Registrar, Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani
    [Show full text]
  • A MEDIUM for MODERNISM: BRITISH POETRY and AMERICAN AUDIENCES April 1997-August 1997
    A MEDIUM FOR MODERNISM: BRITISH POETRY AND AMERICAN AUDIENCES April 1997-August 1997 CASE 1 1. Photograph of Harriet Monroe. 1914. Archival Photographic Files Harriet Monroe (1860-1936) was born in Chicago and pursued a career as a journalist, art critic, and poet. In 1889 she wrote the verse for the opening of the Auditorium Theater, and in 1893 she was commissioned to compose the dedicatory ode for the World’s Columbian Exposition. Monroe’s difficulties finding publishers and readers for her work led her to establish Poetry: A Magazine of Verse to publish and encourage appreciation for the best new writing. 2. Joan Fitzgerald (b. 1930). Bronze head of Ezra Pound. Venice, 1963. On Loan from Richard G. Stern This portrait head was made from life by the American artist Joan Fitzgerald in the winter and spring of 1963. Pound was then living in Venice, where Fitzgerald had moved to take advantage of a foundry which cast her work. Fitzgerald made another, somewhat more abstract, head of Pound, which is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Pound preferred this version, now in the collection of Richard G. Stern. Pound’s last years were lived in the political shadows cast by his indictment for treason because of the broadcasts he made from Italy during the war years. Pound was returned to the United States in 1945; he was declared unfit to stand trial on grounds of insanity and confined to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for thirteen years. Stern’s novel Stitch (1965) contains a fictional account of some of these events.
    [Show full text]
  • First World War Centenary Poetry Collection
    First World War Centenary Poetry Collection 28th July 2014 All items in this collection are in the U.S. Public Domain owing to date of publication. If you are not in the U.S.A., please check your own country's copyright laws. Whether an item is still in copyright will depend on the author's date of death. 01 Preface to Poems by Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918) This Preface was found, in an unfinished condition, among Wilfred Owen's papers after his death. The (slightly amended) words from the preface “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity” are inscribed on the memorial in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. 02 For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943) Published when the Battle of the Marne was raw in people's memories, For the Fallen was written in honour of the war dead. The fourth verse including the words “We will remember them” has become the Ode of Remembrance to people of many nations and is used in services of remembrance all over the world. 03 [RUSSIAN] Мама и убитый немцами вечер (Mama i ubity nemcami vecher) by Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893 - 1930) В стихах «Война объявлена!» и «Мама и убитый немцами вечер» В.В. Маяковский описывает боль жертв кровавой войны и свое отвращение к этой войне. In this poem “Mama and the Evening Killed by the Germans” Mayakovsky describes the victims' pain of bloody war and his disgust for this war. 04 To Germany by Charles Hamilton Sorley (1895 - 1915) Sorley is regarded by some, including John Masefield, as the greatest loss of all the poets killed during the war.
    [Show full text]
  • (London, 1988), P. 125. PROLOGUE
    NOTES PREFACE 1. William Empson, Arguejying (London, 1988), p. 125. PROLOGUE: FAMILY TIES 1. Dame Felicitas Corrigan, Siegfried Sassoon: Poet's Pilgrimage (London, 1973), p. 17. 2. See Keith Middlemass, Edward VII (London, 1975), p. 44. 3. See Stanley Jackson, The Sassoons: Portrait of a Dynasty (London, 1968), pp. 84-88. 4. Jackson (1968), p. 75. 5. In 1871 her sister Laura became the second wife of Lawrence Alma- Tadema (1836-1912), the Dutch-born painter who in the 1880s and 90s achieved popular successes with his imaginary scenes from classical Greece, Rome and ancient Egypt. 6. Jackson (1968), p. 76. 7. In The Old Century there is mention of a cook and two maids, with a nurse - later replaced by a German governess - to look after the boys. The male element consisted of the head-gardener, two under-gardeners and Richardson the groom. 8. Philip Hoare, Serious Pleasures: the Life of Stephen Tennant (London, 1990), p. 88. 9. His book collecting may have reminded him of his grandfather Sassoon David Sassoon, who had spent his leisure hours building up a library of rare Hebrew manuscripts. Cf. Jackson (1968), p. 38. 10. Cf. Sassoon's own account of this venture in The Old Century, pp. 279-82. 11. Corrigan (1973), pp. 55-6. 12. Rupert Brooke's last girlfriend, the actress Cathleen Nesbitt (1888-1982) records in her memoirs, A Little Love (London, 1977), that she met Brooke later that same day and that he was full of indignation about Sassoon's remark. That she should recall such a trivial incident over sixty years later (and at the time Sassoon was still a complete unknown) is hard to believe, especially since, according to Sassoon's version, Brooke did not really make an issue out of it.
    [Show full text]
  • Modem Women's Poetry 1910—1929
    Modem Women’s Poetry 1910—1929 Jane Dowson Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester. 1998 UMI Number: U117004 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U117004 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Modern Women9s Poetry 1910-1929 Jane Dowson Abstract In tracing the publications and publishing initiatives of early twentieth-century women poets in Britain, this thesis reviews their work in the context of a male-dominated literary environment and the cultural shifts relating to the First World War, women’s suffrage and the growth of popular culture. The first two chapters outline a climate of new rights and opportunities in which women became public poets for the first time. They ran printing presses and bookshops, edited magazines and wrote criticism. They aimed to align themselves with a male tradition which excluded them and insisted upon their difference. Defining themselves antithetically to the mythologised poetess of the nineteenth century and popular verse, they developed strategies for disguising their gender through indeterminate speakers, fictional dramatisations or anti-realist subversions.
    [Show full text]
  • Time, Transience and Permanence in Thomas Hardys Poetry
    TIME, TRANSIENCE AND PERMANENCE IN THOMAS HARDY’S POETRY N A I e scholarly critic, when assessing the life and works of a famous writer, must use the most delicate of critical tools to sort and divide a liter- ary oeuvre. Texts must be carefully catalogued and designated in order of importance, yet they must also be constantly re-evaluated and challenged as the passing of time and improved historical data aords later readers a clearer, more panoramic view. Similarly, commercially successful or unsuc- cessful works which critics judge to presage or bookend a literary career can also come to oversimplify a popular understanding of a writer’s literary development and purpose. e literary life of the Dorset writer omas Hardy is oen judged in such commercial terms, and can be seen as span- ning the publication of two of his most famous novels. In 1874, the success of Far From the Madding Crowd allowed Hardy to give up his work as an architect for writing, and its publication launched his literary career. Over twenty years later, the 1895 publication of Jude the Obscure saw Hardy en- dure a welter of social criticism, and this coincided with his decision to give up writing novels and shi his focus to poetry. While Hardy is consid- ered to be one of the greatest English novelists, however, his poetry took much longer to achieve critical success, his verse being considered by some as merely a reaction to the critical failure of Jude. Conversely, Hardy saw himself primarily as a poet and during his lifetime produced a vast body of verse that was strikingly uniform in its thematic approach towards time and memory.
    [Show full text]