Lucy Hawkins ( ? - ?) - WW1 female poet

It is always exciting to discover a poet I have not previously heard of.  In the book “The Forgotten Army: Women’s Poetry of the First World War”, edited by Nora Jones and Liz Ward, are several poets I have not yet researched and one I had not previously heard of – Lucy Hawkins.   On pages 24 – 25 are Lucy Hawkins’ poems “A Private” and “To an Officer in Regent Street”.  

Lucy Hawkins' WW1 collection “At a Venture” was published by Blackwell, Oxford in 1917.

I have not been able to discover anything about Lucy Hawkins – if anyone can help please get in touch.

"To an Officer in Regent Street” by Lucy Hawkins

LIKE some lean ghost who for a little space

Looks on the world again, and the clear skies,

Or mariner that from the sea doth rise

In vain, to find another in his place,

You walk with shades of death on your brown face

And look upon the street with dead men’s eyes.

Fresh women throng beside  you in the street

And painted women;  but they seek in vain

To catch those haunted eyes, or turn again

From their slow course toward waiting death your feet.

You must pass lonely, on whose brow there meet

Abel’s sharp anguish, and the curse of Cain.

Note: Regent Street is one of the main shopping centres of London’s West End.  It was named after the Prince Regent George, who went on to become King George IV. It runs from Waterloo Place in St James's at the southern end, through Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, to All Souls Church. From there Langham Place and Portland Place continue the route to Regent's Park.

Women’s Poetry of the First World War” Edited by Nora Jones and Liz Ward (Highgate Publications, Beverley, Ltd., Beverley, 1991)

Georgina Byng Paget (1874 - 1916) – British poet.

With thanks to Historian and Poet Becky Bishop for

reminding me that I had not yet researched Georgina who is on the List of Female Poets

Georgina Byng Paget was born in Loughborough, Leicestershire, UK in 1874, the birth being registered in the first quarter.  Her parents were Herbert Byng Paget (1846 – 1914) and his wife, Clara Fraser Paget, nee Robinson. Georgina was baptised on 25th February 1874.

In June 1904, Georgina Byng Paget married Eric Morton Paget. Eric was the fourth son of the Rev. Edward Heneage Paget.  In 1911, Georgina and Eric were living in Great Barton, Suffolk.

Georgina died at Hindhead, Surrey on 14th September 1916.

Her poetry collection “Song of the Unborn, and other poems” was published by Grant Richards, London, in 1916.  

“AFTERWARDS” by Georgina B. Paget

LAST night I dreamed he came to me,

My soldier and my saint:

Somewhere, far off, an earthly sea

Beat desolate and faint;

In a dim twilight place we met,

No world before, behind.

I could not see his face, and yet

I knew his eyes were kind.

No words; he knew my heavy part -—

Longing that may not cease —

And, knowing that he knew, my heart

Fell upon utter peace.

And then I woke: a late cock crew,

The clocks were chiming seven—

O God! if Heaven be dreams come true

We need not dream, in Heaven.

From “Song of the Unborn” p. 13

LET'S PRETEND

I have a friend who is more than a friend,

But he may not tell me so ;

We play at the game of Let’s Pretend,

And he doesn’t know that I know.

We could never win through the gate of Sin

To the haven of heart’s desire;

Let us wait awhile (with a sigh and a smile

Lest our pearl be lost in mire. 

So, because my friend is more than my friend

I never must tell him so;

But play at the game of Let's Pretend,—

And he'll never know that I know.

From “Song of the Unborn” p. 38.

Soures:

Catherine W. Reilly "English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography" (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1978) p. 247.

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=PRS/SURREY/BUR/0498602

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBC/1911/RG14/10632/0033/2

Kathleen Montgomery Wallace (1890 – 1958) – British writer and poet

Kathleen was born Kathleen Montgomery Coates in Cambridge on 11th September 1890.  Her father, William Montgomery Coates (1857 – 1912), was a Fellow, a Bursar and a Lecturer in Maths at Queen’s College, Cambridge University.  Her mother was Susan Coates, nee Webb.  William and Susan were married in Dublin in 1899.  The couple had three children – twin daughters, Aileen Montgomery (1890‒1891) and Kathleen Montgomery (1890‒1958), and a son, Basil Montgomery (1893‒1915). Aileen died when she was just fourteen months old, which must surely have had been traumatic for little Kathleen as well as for her parents. The family lived in Cambridge and also had a home in Norfolk.

Educated at Perse High School for Girls, Cambridge, Kathleen went on to Girton College in 1909, where she read Modern Languages. She specialised in French, taking the MML Tripos Part I in 1912 and Part II in 1914. Kathleen, along with Margaret Postgate (Cole), Monica Mary Curtis and two other Girton graduates, contributed poems to a volume of poetry entitled “Bits of Things”, which was published in January 1914.

Kathleen’s brother, Basil, was educated at The Perse School and Oundle before going on to Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he joined the Officers’ Training Corps (OTC).  He volunteered for the Army in 1914 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Rifle Brigade from the University OTC.  Basil’s Regiment – the 10th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own) - was posted to France in the early summer of 1915.  He served at the front in the Ypres Salient and was killed by a sniper on 7th September 1915, while on patrol south of Ypres.  Basil has no known grave and is remembered on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium - Panel 10.

In March 1917, Kathleen married Canadian soldier Major James Hill Wallace (1882 - 1953) in Fulham, London. James was a Canadian soldier from North Gower, Ontario, who was attached to the Canadian Mounted Rifles. By the Armistice in November 1918, James was serving as Chief Supervisor of the Canadian YMCA and was awarded an OBE for his war service.

In 1918, Kathleen published a collection of poems entitled “Lost City Verses” (Heffer, Cambridge, 1918), in which many of the poems reflect her grief at the loss of her brother.  Kathleen also had poems published in two WW1 poetry anthologies. 

After the War, Kathleen and her husband spent two years in Ontario, before going to China for several years. They returned to live in England in 1927.  The couple had four sons.

Kathleen’s experiences in China were the inspiration for a series of novels published between 1930 and 1938, of which the most successful was “Ancestral Tablet” (1938). As well as poetry and novels, Katherine wrote fictional biographies and children’s stories.

James died on 30th November 1953 and Kathleen died on 29th March 1958 at St. George’s Hospital in London.  

Here is one of Kathleen's poems "Died of Wounds" from  “Lost City Verses” (Heffer, Cambridge, 1918)

Because you are dead, so many words they say,

If you could hear them, how they crowd, they crowd;

“Dying for England – but you must be proud” –

And “Greater love, honour, a debt to pay”,

And “Cry, dear”, someone says; and someone, “Pray!”

What do they mean, their words that throng so loud?

This, dearest; that for us there will not be

Laughter and joy of living dwindling cold,

Ashes of words that dropped in flame, first told;

Stale tenderness, made foolish suddenly.

This only, heart’s desire, for you and me,

We who lived love, will not see love grow old.

We who had morning time and crest o’the wave

Will have no twilight chill after the gleam,

Nor for any ebb-tide with a sluggish stream;

No, nor clutch wisdom as a thing to save.

We keep for ever (and yet they call me brave)

Untouched, unbroken, unrebuilt, our dream.

Sources:

Catherine W. Reilly.- “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, new York, 1978) pp. 6, 11 and  326.

Michael Copp.- “Cambridge Poets of The Great War: An Anthology” (Associated University Presses, 2001) pp. 52 and 247.

http://mrcweb.org.uk/mrc2015/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Kathleen-Wallace-obituary.pdf

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=TNA/R39/6531/6531A/020/28

https://www.oundleschool.org.uk/Basil-Montgomery-Coates-7-September-1915?returnUrl=/World-War-I-

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl?start=1890&end=1890&sq=4&eq=4&type=Births&vol=3b&pgno=427&db=bmd_1595843552&jsexec=1&mono=0&v=MTU5NzMzMDM4NDplOGEwZDBlM2QwMzdlMzcyYmJlNjNjM2M0Y2I4NTJkYWM0YTVlY2Y3&searchdef=surname%3DCoates%26type%3DBirths%26eq%3D4%26db%3Dbmd_1595843552%26sq%3D1%26end%3D1901%26start%3D1890%26given%3DKathleen%2520M&action=Find

http://millroadcemetery.org.uk/coates-aileen-montgomery/

http://mrcweb.org.uk/mrc2015/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Kathleen-Wallace-War-Poems.pdf https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/queens-during-the-great-war

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Kathleen-Montgomery/s?rh=n%3A266239%2Cp_27%3AKathleen+Montgomery

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2F1958%2FW008902-WALLACE-1958&parentid=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2FC%2F1958-1958%2F00224269

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2F1954%2FW006873-WALLACE-1954&parentid=GBOR%2FGOVPROBATE%2FC%2F1954-1954%2F00199459

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBOR%2FLONDON-GAZETTE%2F1918%2F2_229&parentid=GBOR%2FLON-GAZ-IX%2F0585747

https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=GBM%2FDR%2FVOL2%2F0072&parentid=GBM%2FDR%2F8300

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBM%2FCWGC%2FROLLOFHONOUR%2F000188527

https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2019/05/unreturning.html

Commemorative First World War Exhibition Project

This self-funded project is in memory of my Grandfather, who was an Old Contemptible  with the Royal Field Artillery who survived, and my two Great Uncles who lost their lives in WW1.

I began researching WW1 in 2012 for an exhibiton of Female Poets of the First World War, requested by Dean Johnson, founder of the Wilfred Owen Story museum (The WOS), Wirral, UK.   Once the exhibition was on display, I just continued researching, adding other headings. Inspirational Women of WW1 came about when I stumbled on the story of Canadian artist Mary Riter Hamilton, commissioned in early 1919 by the Canadian Amputees Association to go and paint the aftermath in France and Belgium.  Philip Gosse, MD, a General Practitioner in Britain was the Official Rat Catcher Officer of the British Second Army on the Western Front, which brought about Fascinating Facts of the Great War.  Realisation that Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves were not the only male soldier poets of WW1, prompted me to start researching Forgotten Poets of the First World War.  I am now researching lesser-known artists of WW1.

Exhibition panels are e-mailed free of charge to anyone wishing to host an exhibition.  Exhibitions have been held in a wide variety of locations throughout the UK, as well as in Cork University, Ireland and in Delaware University, USA, and panels have been sent to schools.  If you know of a venue that would like to display panels, please ask them to contact me and I will send them the list of panels researched so far. 

If you are interested in exhibiting any of the panels researched so far, a full list of panels available will be sent on request.  Some of the panels have been put into book form – please see http://www.poshupnorth.com/ for details.

LUCY LONDON

Commemorative First World War Exhibition Project

www.fascinatingfactsofww1.blogspot.co.uk

www.inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.co.uk

www.femalewarpoets.blogspot.co.uk

www.forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.co.uk

http://lesserknownartists.blogspot.com/

https://worldofnadjamalacrida.blogspot.com/

http://greatwargraves.blogspot.com/

Also on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Inspirational-Women-of-World-War-One-187332758143199/

https://www.facebook.com/femalepoetsofthefirstworldwar/

https://www.facebook.com/forgottenpoetsofww1/

https://www.facebook.com/fascinatingfactsofww1/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799/

Ada Foster Murray (1856 - 1939) – American poet

Born in 1856 in Edgbrook, Virginia, USA, Ada Foster Murray is perhaps best remembered now as being the mother of the poet Aline Murray Kilmer -  the wife of the American soldier poet Joyce Kilmer.  However, Ada was also a published poet.

Little is known about Ada’s early life;  she married Kenton C. Murray, (d. 1895), who was the Editor of the “Norfolk Landmark” newspaper and they went to live in Brunswick, New Jersey. Ada and Kenton had the following children: Kenton Foster Murray (1876–1937), Ada B. Murray b. 1884,
Aline Murray Kilmer (1888–1941), Constance Murray Greene b. 1891 and Douglas Murray (1894–1951).

After the death of Kenton Murray in 1895, Ada married Henry Mills Alden on 22nd February 1900 in Washington, DC.  Henry was the managing editor of “Harper's Magazine”, and he became stepfather to Ada and Kenton’s children.  The couple and their family lived in in Metuchen, New Jersey.

Ada continued to write throughout her life, both poetry and prose and had several poems published in various newspapers and magazines during her lifetime. In 1910 that she compiled and published a collection of her work under the title “Flower’s O’ The Grass”.

“Unwedded” by Ada Foster Murray

ALONG her tranquil way she went,
  The slow, sad course of changeless years,
While in her burned her youth unspent,
  Dulled sometimes by her gentle tears.

In richer lives she saw the strange,
  Sweet urgency of wedded days;
In dreams she watched her pale light change,
  Into the steadfast altar blaze.

And, waking, sadly bowed above
  Her slender vestal flame and wept;
Ah, better were the house of love,
  By blighting fire and tempest swept.

From:  “The Answering Voice: One Hundred Love Lyrics by Women”, edited by Sara Teasdale (1884–1933)  (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1917).

Sources:  Various, including
https://nebula.wsimg.com/5d362c997b0aa8e4da84c3e7ba219c65?AccessKeyId=FC06D45275741C36B0CF&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

Angela Morgan (c.1875 - 1957) - American poet and pacifist

Nina Lillian Morgan was born in about 1875. Her parents were Alwyn Morgan and Carol Baldwin Morgan. She had three sisters and a brother.  From 1876 until 1885, fhe family lived in Washington, DC;  they then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, and later to Topeka, Kansas. In 1890 Angela's father left home to become a gold prospector, and until 1898 she earned money singing with her three sisters. She married Peter Sweningson in 1900 but the marriage was dissolved in 1906.

Changing her name to Angela, she became a journalist for the “Chicago Daily American”, later working for the “New York American” and the “Boston American”.

Angela's first poetry collection, entitled “The Hour Has Struck”, was published in 1914.  In 1915, one of her poems - “God's Man” - was published in “Collier's Weekly”, an American magazine, founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. The magazine ceased publication with the issue dated for the week ending January 4, 1957

In April 1915, Angela crossed the Atlantic Ocean as one of the American delegates to the International Congress of Women’s Peace Conference which was held in The Hague, in the Netherlands.

Between 1923 and 1926, Angela lived in London, UK. She was the first woman to be invited to give a reading of her poetry for the Poetry Society in London, which was founded in 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society in 1912.

For several years, Angela was the poet in residence at Ogontz Junior College, Rydal (PA). She also served as President of the Philadelphia branch of the League of American Penwomen and Chairman of the Literary Arts Committee of the Philadelphia Art Alliance.

In 1942, Angela was awarded an honorary doctorate for her services to literature from Golden State University, founded in Los Angeles in 1901, and now in Downey, California.

Angela died at Mount Marion, New York on 24th January 1957, leaving a legacy of poems and short stories.

Some of Angela’s publications include:
“The Hour Has Struck- A War Poem and Other Poems” (Eugene C. Lewis Co., New York, 1915)
“Utterance and Other Poems” (1916)
“Forward, March” (1918)
“Hail, Man” (1919)

An excerpt from the poem “THE HOUR HAS STRUCK” by Angela Morgan

Now let the people stand and take great heed —
The time is ripe for the immortal deed,
The call is loud for the untrammeled man
To execute God's plan.
Men have gone back unto their primal greed,
On all the hopes of earth have they gone back,
Traitors to faith and every human creed —
Justice and Life and Truth arc on the rack.
A Monster crouches on the breast of Time,
Fiercer than Moloch, filthier than crime ;
A Monster foaming drunk with human gore —
Poets may sing their battle hymns no more.
Poets no more their battle songs may raise.
Nor priest nor patriot sound their putrid praise-
Their blasphemies were smitten from the pen.
Their voices hushed by shrieks of dying men.
Let him who tries
To light his lyric by those crimson skies
Look on this Monster with the hideous head,
White with the staring eyeballs of the dead.
Let him behold the Terror face to face.

From: “The Hour Has Struck- A War Poem and Other Poems” (Eugene C. Lewis Co., New York, 1915)

Sources:
Chris Dubbs “An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War1” (Potomac Books, Inc., Nebraska, 2020)  p. 140
Mark Van Wienen, “Women’s Ways in War: the Poetry and Politics of the Woman’s Peace Party, 1915- 1917, Modern Fiction Studies, Volume 38, No. 3 – “The “Politics " of Modernism (John Hopkins University Press, Autumn 1992), pp. 687-714.
Catherine W. Reilly, “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p. 398
http://archives.nypl.org/uploads/collection/pdf_finding_aid/morgan.pdf

Edith Matilda Thomas (1854 –1925) -American poet

“… one of the first poets to capture successfully the excitement of the modern city"

Born in Chatham Center, Ohio, USA on 12th August 1854, Edith was educated at the normal school of Geneva, Ohio, and Oberlin College. She became a school teacher for two years, before becoming a typesetter.

Edith began writing at an early age early for the local newspapers, and was encouraged by author Helen Hunt Jackson to send verse to more important periodicals. Edith gained national attention with her poetry when “Scribner's”, “The Atlantic Monthly”, “The Century” and other prominent magazines published her poems.

In 1884, Canadian poet Charles G.D. Roberts* wrote of her that "as far as I am aware her poems are not yet gathered in book form, and are therefore only to be obtained, few in number, by gleaning from the magazines and periodicals. Yet so red-blooded are these verses, of thought and of imagination all compact, so richly individual and so liberal in promise, that the name of their author is already become conspicuous.... We are justified in expecting much from her genius."

Edith’s first collection, entitled “A New Year's Masque and Other Poems” was published in 1885.  In 1887 she moved to New York City, where she worked for “Harper's” and “Century Dictionary”. She lived in New York for the rest of her life and published more than 300 poems between 1890 and 1909.

Edith died on 13th September 1925 and on her death she was described as "one of the most distinguished American poets” by The New York Times.

Edith’s collection “Selected Poems” was published in 1926, a year after her death.

“THE CHILDREN AND THE FLAG”

The little children in my country kiss the American flag. MADAME VANDERVELDE

What of those children over the sea
That are beating about the world’s rough ways,
Like the tender blossoms from off a tree
That a sudden gale in Spring betrays?
The children? Oh, let them look for the sign
Of a wave-borne flag, thou land of mine!
On the old gray sea its course it holds,
Life for the famished is in its gift ....
And the children are crowding to kiss its folds,
While the tears of their mothers fall free and swift. —
And what of the flag their lips have pressed?
Oh, guard it for ever — That flag is blest.

Edith M. Thomas

From: “The Book of the Homeless - Le Livre des Sans-Foyer - a 1916 collection of essays, art, poetry, and musical scores”, edited by Edith Wharton and sold during WW1 for the benefit of the American Hostels for Refugees (with the Foyer Franco-Belge) and of the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee (New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1916)

The book is now available as a free download courtesy of Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57584/57584-h/57584-h.htm

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_M._Thomas
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/57584/57584-h/57584-h.htm

*Charles G.D. Roberts, honoured as the father of Canadian literature, was one of the older poets to serve in the First World War.  Born in 1860, he had to lie about his age to join the army; he served as a troop instructor in Britain and as a war historian on the Western Front.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_G._D._Roberts