A First World War poem by French poet Adrienne Blanc-Peridier

I posted a brief biography of Adrienne Blanc-Peridier on this weblog on 21^st September 1915 http://femalewarpoets.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Adrienne+Blanc-Peridier

I have translated of one of Adrienne's poems from her collection "Le Cantique de la Patrie, 1917" published by TYF, Flou-Nourrit & Cie., Paris, 1918, pp 23 – 24.

A detailed search has failed to find any copyright holder for Adrienne’s poems.

War swept across the plain

Dressed in red, her hair aflame !…
The young men followed her, every one
Leaving their girl friends all alone !…

War raced down the hillsides,

With feverish mouth and red eyes …
Heedless of the women who wept,
The men followed her every step.
 

Triumphant, insatiable, war

Runs thru' the fields and across the forest floor,
Her seductive voice exhorting the men
To join her in battle again and again.

Shivering, exhausted, out of breath,

Regardless of the smell of certain death,
They follow war, surrendering to her fatal powers
Eager to pick her lips' toxic flowers!

Translated by Lucy London, 11th and 12th October 2015

 

Original:

La guerre a passé sur la plaine

Avec sa robe rouge et ses cheveux épars !…
Les jeunes hommes l'ont suivie
Et les jeunes filles n'ont plus d'amoureux !…

La guerre a descendu le versant des collines,

La bouche fiévreuse et les yeux en feu…
Et sans voir les larmes des femmes,
Les  hommes ont couru sur ses pas.

La guerre triomphante et jamais assouvie

Court sur nos champs et sur nos bois,
Et sa voix haletante appelle
Les jeunes hommes au combat.

Tremblants, éperdus, hors d'haleine,

Ils vont, abandonnés à son pouvoir fatal ;
Ils veulent cueillir la fleur de ses lèvres
Dont le parfum donne la mort !

Adrienne Blanc-Peridier, 1915

Mabel Goode (1872 – 1954) – British

It is always exciting to find another poet and browsing through a book recently, see left, I discovered that Mabel Goode, who kept a war diary, also wrote poetry.  On pages 160 - 161 of this wonderful book about Mabel's WW1 diary, you will find some of Mabel's First World War Poetry. 

Mabel was born on 27th October 1872 and, according to her Great-Great Nephew who edited her WW1 diary, Mabel was brought up by her Step-Mother because her parents died before her tenth birthday. 

The family lived in Germany from 1881 – 1887 and Mabel went to the Slade School of Art on her return from Germany.  During the Second World War she lived in Ulverston in the Lake District.  Ulverston was in Lancashire at that time.  Mabel died in 1954.  

"The Lengthening War: The Great War Diary of Mabel Goode" Edited by Michael Goode with a Foreword by Sir Chris Clark. Published by Pen & Sword (Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, UK, in 2016). https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/  

I am hoping to find out more about Mabel soon.

Lily Horswill (1877 - 1944) - British

If you follow my weblog regularly, you will know that from time to time I receive messages from relatives of the poets on my list.

Actress and theatre producer Fidelis Morgan contacted me recently about her Great Aunt Lily Horswill, who is mentioned on page 174 of Catherine W. Reilly’s “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978).

Fidelis sent me some information about her Great-Aunt, so I went on Find my Past to complete the picture:

LILLIAN EMMA HORSWILL (1877–1944) - British

Lily was born on 17^th August 1877 in Tunnel Hill, Claines, Worcestershire, UK.  Her parents were William Henry Upham Horswill, a furniture salesman, and his wife Amy, nee Chatttaway.  Lily had the following siblings: Charles H., b. 1865, Herbert W., b. 1867, Edith A., b. 1871, Lizzie A., b. 1875, Florence E., b. 1881, Walter P., b. 1883 and Sydney, b.1884.

Lily’s brother Walter, who was Fidelis’s Grandfather, served in the Army during WW1 and was badly injured during the Battle of Ypres.  Fidelis knew him as a child and he never recovered from being gassed.

In 1911, the Horswill family was living at no. 15 Warburton Road, Seaforth, Lancashire and it seems that Lily was still living there in 1939. 

Lily died on 31^st August 1944 at The Little Retreat, Great Leighs, Essex.

According to Catherine W. Reilly, Lily Horswill published a poem entitled “Duty’s Call” in Liverpool in 1914.  I have not been able to trace a copy of the poem and wondered if anyone could help please.

Barbara Garnons Williams - British

Frances Mary Barbara Garnons Williams was born in 1889.  Her father was British Army Officer and Welsh Rugby Union Player Richard Davies Garnons Williams, a landowner, and her mother was Alice Jessie Garnons Williams, nee Bircham.  In 1911, the family lived in Waundererwen Hay, Hay Urban, Breconshire, Wales,

 

Barbara Garnons Williams was educated at Godolphin School, Salisbury, Wiltshire, In Kensington in 1916, Barbara married Roderick Buckley Hume, a solicitor and director of Buckley’s Breweries in Llanelly, Wales.

 

Barbara was serving in France when her husband, a Captain in the Welsh Guards, who had been invalided home from Gallipoli and served in Egypt and on the Western Front, where he was wounded at the Battle of Ypres, was killed at Cambrai on 1^st December 1917.  Her father, a Lieutenant-Colonel, although retired from the Army, served again in WW1 and was killed in 1915 at the Battle of Loos.

 

Barbara’s Uncle, Aylmer Herbert Garnons Williams, was in command of the Lancashire Navy League Sea Training Home in Liscard.

 

The following poem written by Barbara was published in the Godolphin School Magazine “The Godolphin Gazette” in the Summer Term 1915:

 

 

“THE GREATER LOVE”

 

“Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

 

Forth! Though the din of battle sounds but faintly

            O’er English woods and lanes.

Forth! For it thunders loud and still more loudly

            On French and Belgian plains.

 

Forth! And though many hundreds fall beside them,

            Though cannon thunder loud,

Yet they stand fast, unbroken and undaunted,

            Awe-stricken, yet uncowed!

 

Forth! For from blood-drenched earth, in purple trenches

            Their comrades call them home;

“Fresh are the laurels, bright the crowns immortal,

            Therefore, our brethren, come!”

 

Forth! Across yards hail-swept with shrapnel,

            While great shells burst above,

They meet the death their brothers found before them

            And know the “greater love.”

 

Forth! And though heads are bowed and eyes are weary,

            Only one thing they see:

That flag which sets their brains and pulses bounding

            To set their England free!

 

Forth! And they come from many lands and islands,

            Yet all are one in death.

And for one end and for one great tradition

            They give their latest breath.

 

Forth! They are heroes, and their lives are precious,

            And some of great renown.

Yet each one finds a larger life and fuller

            In laying this life down.

 

Oh, God of Battles! Grant them rest from striving,

            Make all their warfare cease!

Give that, which passes all our understanding,

            Thine own eternal Peace.

BARBARA GARNONS WILLIAMS

Sources:

http://www.historyofwallasey.co.uk/wallasey/The_Navy_League/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garnons_Williams

http://www.wwwmp.co.uk/carmarthenshire-war-memorials/llanelli-buckley-s-brewery-memorial/

With grateful thanks to Lucy Beney, herself a former Godolphin School pupil, for searching through the WW1 copies of "Godolphine Gazette" and sending me some fantastic poems written by female poets, including the poem written by Barbara Garnons Williams.

Poem by a woman munitions worker in WW1 Bedfordshire

Well in time for our Christmas Wish Lists, here is news of a WW1-related book to be published on 2^nd October 2017 by The History Press - “Sand, Planes and Submarines: How Leighton Buzzard shortened the War” by Paul Brown and Delia Gleave.   To pre-order a copy please see the following link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sand-Planes-Submarines-Leighton-shortened/dp/0750983701?SubscriptionId=AKIAJFLQEIYOLULAFUYQ&tag=wwwthehisto0b-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0750983701


I am reliably informed there will be some WW1 poems written by women munitions workers (see photo from the Bedfordshire and Luton Archives) and a chapter about local nurses.  Definitely a must buy.

With thanks to Elise Ward who posted mention of the poems on Debbie Cameron's Facebook Page Remembering Women on the Home Front WW1.

Elizabeth Bibesco, Princess (1897 – 1945) – British writer, poet, playwright, actress, producer.

Elizabeth Charlotte Lucy Asquith was born on 26^th February 1897 in London.  She was the first-born child of Herbert Henry Asquith, the British Liberal politician, and his second wife, Emma Alice Margaret, nee Tennant, who was known as Margot.  Elizabeth had a brother, Anthony (1902 – 1968), who became a film director.  Their half-siblings were Raymond (1878 – 1916), Herbert junior (1881 – 1947), Arthur, b. 1884, Helen Violet (1887 – 1969) and Cyril (1890 – 1954).  Herbert Asquith senior was the British Prime Minister from 1908 until 1916, when he became ill following the death during the Somme Offensive of his eldest son Raymond. 

Elizabeth inherited her parents’ interest in politics and even as a teenager established a reputation for being strong-willed and determined.   In 1909 she urged the playwright George Bernard Shaw to write a play for her to produce and have performed by child actors for charity.   This he did and “The Fascinating Foundling” was the result.

During the First World War when her Father was Prime Minister, Elizabeth continued her fund-raising work in aid of the wounded and organised concerts, recitals, poetry readings and plays.

In 1919, she married Roumanian Prince Antoine Bibesco who was a diplomat.   The couple lived in Paris and had a daughter, Priscilla, who was born in 1920.  Elizabeth continued to write and also travelled extensively with her husband, who was Roumania’s Ambassador to Washington, USA in 1920 and to Madrid, Spain in 1927.

Elizabeth was in Roumania during the Second World War and she died there on 7^th April 1945.

Her poetry collection “Poems” was published in 1927.

Florence Ripley Mastin (1886 – 1968) – American poet, writer and teacher

Many thanks to Janet who contacted me recently with regard to women poets of the First World War.  Janet’s e-mail reminded me that I have not posted much recently about the poets on my list, so I decided to research one that Janet mentioned.

Florence Ripley Mastin was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA on 18^th March 1886.  She was educated at Tappen Zee College before going on to study at Barnard College, Columbia University.  Florence had one of her poems published when she was fourteen years old.

After graduation, Florence taught English and creative poetry at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York.   She had her work published in many publications such as the New York Times, the Saturday Review, Poetry and the New York Herald-Tribune.

A collection of Florence’s poems entitled “Green Leaves” was published in 1918 by J.T. White.  Florence died in Rockland County in 1968.

Sources:

http://pennyspoetry.wikia.com/wiki/Florence_Ripley_Mastin
https://allpoetry.com/Florence-Ripley-Mastin

Photo from: http://idylease.org/idylease-blog/tag/florence-ripley-mastin/