With thanks to Dr Margaret Stetz for reminding me that I had not yet researched Dora who is on the List of Female Poets of the First World War under Ireland.
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| Dora by John Lavery |
The Sigerson family home was at 3 Clare Street, Dublin and was a gathering-place for artists and writers. As she grew up, Dora met many important figures of the emerging Irish literary revival at parties given by her parents. She studied at the Dublin School of Art at the same time as W.B. Yeats. Dora had several of her collections of poetry published, beginning with “Verses” in 1893. Her sister, later called Hester Sigerson Piatt also became a writer.
In September 1896, Dora married English journalist and literary critic Clement King Shorter (1857 – 1926) in Hampstead, London. The couple lived in Marylebone, London until her death on 6th January 1918. Dora then wrote using the name Dora Sigerson Shorter.
In 1900, at the height of the Boer War, Clement founded and became the first Editor of “The Sphere” newspaper. “The Sphere" was an illustrated newspaper for the home, published by London Illustrated Newspapers weekly from 27th January 1900 until the closure of the paper on 27th June 1964. DuringThe First World War, the weekly papers were called 'war numbers' and over two hundred issues were published between 1914 and 1919.
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| "The Sphere" 1914 |
According to Catherine W. Reilly, Dora Sigerson Shorter wrote several collections of war poems during WW1:
“Comfort the Women, A Prayer in Time of War” (1915), which was reprinted from “The Daily Telegraph” of 27th February 1915 in a limited edition of 20 copies by Dora’s husband for distribution to friends.
“An Old Proverb ‘It will all be the same in a thousand years’ ” (1916), a limited edition of 25 copies printed privately by Clement Shorter and first published in “The Nation” of 20th May 1916.
“The Sad Years and other poems” (Constable, 1918) a limited edition of 50 copies printed for private circulation.
“The Tricolour: poems of the Irish Revolution” (Maunsel & Roberts, Dublin, 1922).
Dora had 3 poems published in the WW1 Anthology “The Paths of Glory: A Collection of Poems written during the War, 1914 – 1918”, Edited by Bertram Lloyd (Allen & Unwin, London, 1919), which is available to read as a free download on Archive https://archive.org/details/pathsofglorycoll00lloy/page/14/mode/2up
“AN OLD PROVERB” a poem by Dora Sigerson Shorter published in “The Paths of Glory” pp. 104 - 107 "It will be all the same in a thousand years."
AND in a thousand years
It will be all the same,
Whether or no
Women's tears flow,
Or battles take us
To save or to break us,
Or man against man
Advance but a span ;
Hideous in anger.
Tame in death's languor,
Shouting and crying.
Sobbing and dying,
On the red fields of war ;
Calling on those afar.
Mother and child and wife
There in the midst of strife.
God, the earth shakes with it !
Down in the hellish pit,
Where the red river ran,
Hatred of man to man ;
Maddened they rush to kill,
That but their single will ;
Strangle or bayonet him !
Trample him life and limb
Into the awful mire ;
Break him with knife or fire !
So that we know he lie
Dead to the smiling sky.
And in a thousand years
It will be all the same.
Which of us was to blame ?
What will it matter then ?
Over the sleeping men
Grass will so softly grow
No one would ever know
Of the dark crimson stain.
Of all the hate and pain
That once had fearful birth
In the black secret earth.
Ah ! in a thousand years
Time will forget our tears.
Babes in their golden hour
Seeking some hidden flower
Will, in those years afar,
Play on the fields of war ;
And as they laughing roam
Mothers will call them home ;
Laden with fruit and flower
Run they at twilight hour.
Cattle will, lowing, stray,
Little lambs frisk and play,
Birds nest in hedge and tree,
All in Time's victory.
Dark o' night, dawn o' day,
Dark o' night, dawn o' day.
Thus in a thousand years
Time will forget our tears,
And the lost fields of war ;
In the good years afar
When the lads silent lie,
When women's tears are dry.
All the wives comforted.
All the maid's grief is shed,
Crying babes safe and still
Sleeping in vale and hill,
Sobbing of men is mute,
And scream of dying brute,
On the red fields of war.
In those good years afar.
Only the waving grass.
Where the shy children pass
Seeking the hidden flower.
Glad in their golden hour.
And as they laughing roam
Mothers will call them home.
Laden with fruit or flower
Run they at twilight hour.
Over the meadow grass
Slow the moon's shadows pass.
Only the chirp of bird
From the deep hedge is heard.
This in a thousand years
Payment of blood and tears,
Horrors we dare not name,
It will be all the same.
What is the value then
To all those sleeping men ?
It will be all the same,
Passion and grief and blame.
This in the years to be,
My God, the tragedy !
DORA SIGERSON (MRS. SHORTER) published in her collection "The Sad Years." (London : Constable & Co., Ltd., 1918. 58.)
Sources: Wikipedia, Find my Past, Free BMD and Catherine W. Reilly.- “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) pp. 292 and 19.
