In this part of the essay I will be looking at two recruiting poems. :: English Literature

In this part of the essay I will be looking at two recruiting poems. Harold Begbie's Fall in poem first was released in the Daily Chronical on the 31st August 1914. The Changing attitudes to world war 1 Harold Begbie's In this part of the essay I will be looking at two recruiting poems. Harold Begbie's 'Fall in' poem first was released in the 'Daily Chronical' on the 31st August 1914. It was one of the most popular poems of its time they even set it to music and sung it in music halls; posters and badgers related to the poem were produced. Fall In In the first line of this poem the writer immediately starts with emotional black mail he writes then if you don't fall in then you will be looked down on by girls, children, mates and neighbors. I think he portrays this the best here "What will you lack, sonny, what will you lack When the girls line up the street, Shouting their love to the lads come back" When the poem was written people thought that the whole point of life was to grow up and get married and have a family. So these quotes were very important in the recruiting poetry. He also writes about how embarrassed you would be that you didn't go and help your country win the war. He does this really well here "Will you send a strangled cheer to the sky And grin till your cheeks are red?" Recruiting poems were very successful they could be sung with music. They were very persuasive and many men did sign up to go to war. As the war carried on and the injured started to come back the poems of the reality of war started to appear. Who's for the game Jessie Pope had never been to the front line and didn't really know what it was like to fight. I will start with 'Who's for the Game'. In this poem Jessie Pope makes war out to be a game she shows this best in this part of the poem "Who's for the game, the biggest game that's played," also when this poem was written rugby was quite popular so when she writes "Who'll grip and tackle the job unafraid?" it may have made the people think that it was no worse then being in a rugby game. Throughout the poem she uses a extended metaphor she always compares war to something else and avoids writing about suffering and death. Jessie Pope also makes out that if you don't join up then you will have to sit back and watch the 'game' go past I think she shows this