Lola Ridge (1873 – 1 941) – Irish born poet who lived in New Zealand, Australia and America

With thanks to Dr Connie Ruzich for reminding that that, although Lola is on my List of Female Poets of the First World War, I had not yet researched her.  I now understand why I placed Lola in my List as a New Zealand poet. But where to put her?  What do you think? 

Cover of Lola's collection

Rose Emily Ridge was born in 1873 in Dublin, Ireland (Eire). Her parents were Joseph Henry and Emma Ridge, nee Reilly - she was their only surviving child. Lola's father died when she was three years old and her mother toook her to live in New Zealand, settling in Hokitika.  Emma later married a miner who was from Scotland.   

In 1895, Lola married Peter Webster, who managed a gold mine in Hokitika. In 1903, she left her husband and moved to Sydney, Australia with her three-year-old son Keith. She studied at Trinity College and enrolled in art classes at the Sydney Art School.  Lola had poems printed in the “Canterbury Times” and the “Otego Witness”, which were New Zealand publications, and in the  “Sydney Bulletin”, an Australian magazine.

After the death of her mother, Lola went to live in America, using the pen name Lola Ridge – artist and poet.  In 1907 she was living in San Francisco.  One of her poems was published in 1908 in “Overland  Monthly”, a magazine published in California, founded in 1868 by Anton Roman, a Bavarian-born bookseller who moved to California during the Gold Rush.  

Later in 1908, Lola went to live in Greenwich Village, New York, leaving her son in a childrens’ home in San Francisco. Her long poem, “The Ghetto”, was first published in “The New Republic”, a magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts, founded in 1914 and still going strong.  Lola’s first poetry collection, “The Ghetto and Other Poems”, was published in 1918. On 22nd October 1919, Lola married David Laws.

In 1935, Lola was awarded the Shelley Memorial Award, given by the Poetry Society of America. She died in 1941. Her papers are held at Smith College.

Collections by Lola Ridge include “The Ghetto, and Other Poems” (1918), “Sun-up, and Other Poems” (1920), “Red Flag” (1927), “Firehead” (1930), and “Dance of Fire” (1935).

Some of Lola's poems:

"DREAMS"

  Men die...

  Dreams only change their houses.

  They cannot be lined up against a wall

  And quietly buried under ground,

  And no more heard of...

  However deep the pit and heaped the clay--

  Like seedlings of old time

  Hooding a sacred rose under the ice cap of the world--

  Dreams will to light.

  "THE FIRE"

  The old men of the world have made a fire

  To warm their trembling hands.

  They poke the young men in.

  The young men burn like withes.

  If one run a little way,

  The old men are wrath.

  They catch him and bind him and throw him again to the flames.

  Green withes burn slow...

  And the smoke of the young men's torment

  Rises round and sheer as the trunk of a pillared oak,

  And the darkness thereof spreads over the sky....

  Green withes burn slow...

  And the old men of the world sit round the fire

  And rub their hands....

  But the smoke of the young men's torment

  Ascends up for ever and ever.

"THE TIDINGS" (Easter 1916)

  Censored lies that mimic truth...

       Censored truth as pale as fear...

  My heart is like a rousing bell--

       And but the dead to hear...

  My heart is like a mother bird,

       Circling ever higher,

  And the nest-tree rimmed about

       By a forest fire...

  My heart is like a lover foiled

       By a broken stair--

  They are fighting to-night in Sackville Street,

       And I am not there!

From “The Ghetto, and Other Poems” (1918) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4332

Sources:

https://behindtheirlines.blogspot.com/2020/03/

https://mypoeticside.com/poets/lola-ridge-poems

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lola-ridge

https://poets.org/poet/lola-ridge

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4332

Lady Maud Warrender (1870-1945) – poet, singer, writer, patron of the arts & Head of the British Poetry Society

With thanks to Dr Margaret Stetz for telling me about Maud Warrender

Ethel Maud Ashley-Cooper was born on 16th December 1870. Her parents were Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 8th Earl of Shaftesbury Bt DL, (son of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury), and his wife, Harriet Augusta Anna Seymourina (Chichester), only daughter (and only surviving child) of the 3rd Marquess of Donegall. Ethel Maud’s siblings were: Margaret, b. 1858, Evelyn, b. 1865, Mildred, b. 1867, Violet, b.1868 and Anthony, b. 1869.  The family lived on an estate near Wimbourne, Dorset, UK.

On 6th February 1894 at St. Paul’s Church in Knightsbridge, London, Maud married Vice-Admiral Sir George John Scott Warrender of Lochend, 7th Baronet, KCB, KCVO (31 July 1860 – 8 January 1917), who served as a senior officer in the British Royal Navy during the First World War.   One of his sisters, Alice Warrender, founded the Hawthornden Prize. 

Maud and George went on to have three children: Sir Victor Alexander George Anthony Warrender 8th Bt., 1st Baron Bruntisfield, Harold John Warrender and Violet Helen Marie Warrender. In 1903, the Warrenders bought Leasam House near Rye in East Sussex. Maud entertained many of the famous people of the day - the Elgars, the Kiplings, the Alfred Lyttletons, Nellie Melba and Ellen Terry.   George became Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in March 1916. He requested retirement in December 1916, owing to a deterioration in his health. He died in January 1917. 

After her husband's death in January 1917, Maud worked for the Red Cross collecting books for the wounded. In her memoir "My First Sixty Years", she says:  "When I returned from Plymouth in 1917 I worked for the Red Cross Hospital Library, which was started by Mrs. Gaskell in order to supply the wounded  everywhere in our many campaigns during the War.   Millions of books were sent out from Surrey House, which was lent by Lady Battersea, where now stands the Regal Cinema at the Marble Arch.  The Red Cross Library was started by May Gaskell because she had remembered how, in the Boer War, any books that happened to be in the Hospital had to be divided into portions and handed on from bed to bed until they fell to pieces." 

In 1917 Maud became a District Commissioner of the Rye Division of Girl Guides and wrote a Marching Song for the Guides, "bringing in all our slogans": 

All the world is full of Music, 

Let us sing our way through life. 

There’s a song for those who hear it. 

Bringing peace and ending strife. 

There is Music in the Sunshine 

We can shed — We take out stand 

And we vow, as Guides, 

That whate’er betides. 

We’ll be there to knd a hand. 

Refrain and Chorus:

Be prepared shall be our watchword. 

Let us sing it every day. 

Pressing forward, looking upward, 

Helping others on their way ; 

Be prepared for joy or sorrow. 

Always smiling, come what may. 

And the world shall see what Guides can be 

As we march along on life’s highway. 

Let the message dear come ringing : 

Onward! Upward! Let us prove 

That the song the Guides are singing 

Gives us courage, brings us love. 

All the world is full of Music, 

Let us make our lives a song, 

That wll make hearts beat. 

And will lift our feet 

As we bravely march along. 

Chorus. Be prepared, etc. 

In her memoir, Maud tells us:  “Hermann Darewski composed a marching tune to these words, most generously giving me the copyright and five thousand copies, which were sold for the Guide Funds.  (From “My First Sixty Years” by Maud Warrender (Cassell & Co. Ltd., London, 1933) pp. 128 and 129. 

NOTES:

Herman Darewski (17 April 1883 – 2 June 1947) was a British composer and conductor of light music.

Maud was also a founding member of the charity which, in her day, was known as the Musicians Benevolent Fund and is now called Help Musicians UK

The Poetry Society was founded in 1909 to promote “a more general recognition and appreciation of poetry”.

Dr Margaret Stetz is Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Delaware in America.

SOURCES:

https://elgarsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Vol.-14-No.-3-November-2005-Compressed.pdf

https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.209233/2015.209233.My-First_djvu.txt

https://vad.redcross.org.uk/Card?sname=Warrender&id=218471

Portrait of Lady Maud Warrender by American artist Violet Oakley (June 10, 1874 – February 25, 1961).

Lady Maud Warrender's WW1 Recrod card is from the British Red Cross WW1 website

Edith C.M. Dart (1873 – 1924) – British poet

Edith was born in Crediton, Devon in 1873. Her parents were William Dart, a building contractor, and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth, nee Mead. Edith’s siblings were Catherine E Dart, b. 1858, and Alice M. Dart, b. 1868.

It seems that Edith lived her life in Crediton, Devon and never married.  She died in 1924.

“Not Yet” by Edith Dart published in “The English Review” March 1920, page 201

Someday I'll know again, maybe, 

All that once made Spring rich for me 

Strange sense of beauty's leaping thrill 

At the first budding daffodil, 

Swift echo of the blackbird's song 

Within the heart;  the sudden throng 

Of bud and flower the whole wood through 

As when ... I walked it, once . . . with you. 

Surely I shall be glad again 

For April meadows after rain, 

For hawthorns white along the lea, 

Sky bluer than a summer sea. 

When years have gone, will earth not show 

Once more her treasures 'neath the snow, 

Waking my heart with crocus gold 

Against the darkness of the mould ? 

Shall I rejoice then o'er and o'er 

In the great bounty of Earth's store? 

Maybe . . someday . . . when I forget. 

Not yet, beloved, ah ! not yet ! 

Edith Dart had a poem published in the WW1 Anthology “For Consolation: poems” Compiled by William Chomel Tuting (Home Words, 1915)

Sources:  Catherine W Reilly, “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) p.p. 30 and 104.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HgUrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false

“The English Review” March 1920, page 201

https://archive.org/stream/englishrevima20londuoft/englishrevima20londuoft_djvu.txt

Sylvia Colenso (1887 - ) – musician and poet

Found for us by Great War researcher, member of the Great War Group, ex-primary school teacher, museum volunteer Judith Jones. Judith contacted me to ask if Sylvia Colenso was on the List of Female Poets - well she wasn't so I must add her.  Thank you Judith.

Sophie, Irma and Sylvia Colenso 

Sylvia was the Granddaughter of Bishop John Colenso, Bishop of Natal in Africa. 

An article written by author Nick Gammage gives us some important clues to Sylvia’s identity: Sylvia Colenso was born in 1887 in Marylebone, London, UK.   Her parents were Francis Ernest Colenso, a barrister and actuary (who was the elder son of Bishop John Colenso), and his wife, Sophie J. Colenso, nee Frankland. Sophie’s father was Sir Edward Frankland - an emminent scientist;  her mother, Sophie Fick, sister of the physician and physiologist Adolf Eugen Fick, was German - from Kassel in Germany. As a consequence, Sylvia spoke German and frequently visited her Grandmother’s family in Germany.  Incidentally, Sophie and Adolf Fick's nephew, Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick, invented the contact lens and was the author of Fick Principle. It is used in Intensive Care Units worldwide to help save lives daily.*

Sylvia’s siblings were: Esmond (who died as a baby), Eothan, Irma and Nigel. 

The Colenso family had a house in London and, from the Autumn of 1901, a house in the Buckinghamshire countryside in Amersham.  The house was called “Elangeni”, which is a Zulu word (and also the name of a Zulu tribe) meaning “where the sun shines through“, reflecting Sylvia’s Father’s childhood in Africa.  The 1911 Census lists the family as living in “Elangeni” with Sylvia’s occupation as musician.

Sylvia had a poem entitled “Man’s Lot” – translated from German - published in an anthology of anti-war poems edited by Bertram Lloyd and published by G. Allen & Unwin Ltd., London in 1918 -  “Poems written during the Great War, 1914-1918”.

Sylvia became an accomplished pianist, and accompanied the first recording of Nkosi Sikelel I Afrika (now the South African national anthem) in 1923.  

In 1938, she married Ernest Bertram Lloyd (14 May 1881 – 9 June 1944)   in Cardigan, Wales. Bertram, who was a naturalist, humanitarian, vegetarian and campaigner for animal rights and founder of the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports, was also a fluent German speaker.  In 1939 Sylvia and Bertram lived at 53 Parkhill Road, Belsize Park, Camden, Hampstead, London, UK.

“Man’s Lot” – Sylvia Colenso

The earth is soaked in blood, and underneath

Lie burried shattered limbs of young men dead;

These – peasants, teachers, flock and those who led –

One volley swept into the arms of death.

The thought that victory, peace and joy 

Might spring from out their sacrifice of blood,

This was the last fond hope which seemed good,

And comfort brought to many a dying boy.

But some there were to whom in their last hour

Were granted vision clear to see and know 

That out of slaughter death anew would spring,

And dreams of vengeance, fairest lands laid low;

That vain each off’ring to war’s evil power –

These felt death hard and knew it’s sharpest sting.

Translated from the German 

From “Poems written during the Great War, 1914-1918”, Edited by Bertram Lloyd (G. Allen & Unwin Ltd., London, 1918) p. 24.

Judith makes a very good point about that poem: “It sends shivers down my spine to read 'Man's Lot' and know it was written in 1918, or earlier, by someone who was half-German and would live to see it all happen again. Her vision was certainly clear.”   (with thanks to Linda.@SE25A for spotting the typo which I have corrected.)

Sources:

Copy of the poem “Man’s Lot” kindly supplied by Judith Jones  

Find my Past 

https://amershammuseum.org/history/people/19th-century/colenso/

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

Photograph of Sophie, Irma and Sylvia Colenso found for us by Judith Jones.

papers-of-silas-t-molema-and-solomon-t-plaatje.pdf  

http://historicalpapers-atom.wits.ac.za/sophie-irma-and-sylvia-colenso-england

* With thanks for additional information re Adolf Eugen Fick to

mangastyle

@elvispreselly

Margueretta Stuart Taylor (c 1899 - 1982) – Canadian Poet

With grateful thanks to Liz Tobin for finding the poem that sparked off this research, and to Annette Fulford for finding a great deal of information about Margueretta

Margueritta had a poem published in “The Gold Stripe”, edited by Felix Penne, pen-name of J. Francis Bursill. The publication was “published as a tribute to the British Columbia men who have been killed, crippled and wounded in the Great War”. "The Net Profits of this Publication will go to the Amputation Club of B.C., Vancouver, for men who have been maimed and wounded in the Great War."

Margueretta Stuart Taylor was born in Scotland in around 1899.  Her parents were William Taylor and his wife Margaret Taylor, nee Stuart. Annette tells us that in the 1911 and 1921 Canadian Census, she is listed as Margaret Taylor. Both records indicate the Taylor family went to live in Canada in 1905.  

According to Margueretta’s obituary she became a teacher and taught at Hastings School in Canada from 1921 until she retired.   In Vancouver in November 1929, she married William Dennis Nash (1896 – 1939), who was born in Lewisham, London, UK and worked for the Hudson Bay Company in Canada. The couple had two daughters.   Margueretta died on 26th September 1982.

I wonder if she wrote any other poems?

If anyone knows please get in touch.

Sources: 

Additional information found by Annette Fulford  @avidgenie  - a Canadian genealogist who specializes in researching First World War Brides and soldiers' dependents 1914-1921 and Canadian Immigration.

Marriage certificate and obituaries for Margueretta and her husband found by Annette Fulford

Gold Stripe cover from https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_08724/1?r=0&s=1

Report of the death of William Dennis Nash from the Province Newspaper December 15, 1939, page 9.

Margueretta’s obituary from the Vancouver Sun, Sept 29, 1982, page 69

https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/gold-stripe-tribute-to-british-columbia-men-who-have-been-killed-crippled-and-wounded-in-great-war

Eva Shaw McLaren (1866 - ) – British writer and younger sister of Dr. Elsie Inglis

Was Eva also a poet - that is the question 

I have not been able to discover much about her but it seems that Eva was born on 13th July 1866 in Naini Tal, Bengal, India.  Her parents were John Forbes David Inglis and his wife, Harriet Lowis Inglis, nee Thompson. 

An article by Hamish MacPherson about Dr. Elsie Inglis suggests that Eva was Elsie’s younger sister -

“Her younger sister, Eva Helen, would later become Eva Shaw McLaren and write her big sister’s biography, “Elsie Inglis, The Woman With the Torch”, on which my account of Elsie greatly relies.” https://www.thenational.scot/news/18426143.greatest-scot-many-talents-dr-elsie-inglis/

Dr. Elsie Inglis

In the book Eva wrote about Dr. Elsie Inglis -  “Elsie Inglis The Woman with the Torch” by Eva Shaw McLaren, with a preface by Lena Ashwell (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1920) – we find this poem:

Great souls who sailed uncharted seas,

Battling with hostile winds and tide,

Strong hands that forged forbidden keys,

And left the door behind them, wide.

Diggers for gold where most had failed,

Smiling at deeds that brought them Fame,—

Lighters of Lamps that have not failed,—

Lend us your oil and share your flame.

Was the poem written by Eva?  I have not been able to find out anything more about Eva.  If anyone can help please get in touch.  

Note: 

John Forbes David Inglis and his wife, Harriet Lowis Inglis, nee Thompson. had six children in their 'first family' George David (b 1847), Amy (b 1848), Cecil (b 1849), Hugh (b 1851), Herbert (b 1853) and Ernest (b 1856).[6] In 1856 John Inglis arranged to take the family home to Britain for a period of leave of three years. This proved to be a prolonged journey which took 4 months to reach Bombay and a further 4 moths by sailing ship round Cape Hope to reach England. He was recalled early to India in 1858 because of the Indian Rebellion and returned leaving his family in Southampton. George, Hugh and Herbert were sent to school at Eton, Cecil to Uppingham and Ernest to Rugby, while Amy was looked after by relatives. Once they were settled and events in India were back to 'normal', Harriet Inglis returned to India in 1863 and they had the 'second family' of three further children, Eliza Maude (known as Elsie) (b 1864), Eva Helen (b 1866) and Horace (born 1868). Elsie Inglis, who became the most famous of the children, was born in the Himalayan hill station town of Naini Tal, in the state of Uttarakhand, When the Inglis family moved to Tasmania the Inglis girls were tutored by Miss Knott, a disciple of Dorothea Beale, a pioneer of education for women.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Inglis_(civil_servant)

Muriel Bruce (1890-1981) – Canadian lyricist, musician, journalist and writer

With grateful thanks to Liz Tobin for finding Muriel for us 

Muriel Elizabeth Bruce was born on 20th July 1890 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.   Her parents were John Bruce (1851 – 1935) and his second wife, Helen Rowell Bruce, nee O’Reilly (1866 – 1937). Muriel had two half-brothers - Henry Addington Bayley Bruce, b.1875 and Rupert N. Bruce, b. 1874.  

Muriel was also a classical pianist. She worked as a reporter for a Toronto newspaper and published several books, novels and sonnets.  From an early age, she had an interest in the Theosophical Movement and cosmological theory. Her most well-known book is “Pursuit of Destiny”, the title of which was later changed to “Tarot and Astrology”. 

After marrying Abraham Louis Hasbrouck in December 1931, Muriel moved from Canada to New York. The couple collaborated to write a collection/series entitled “Space-Time Forecasting and Economic Trends 1958-1996”, about the correlation of natural forces on market forecasting.  Louis died in June 1979.  Muriel and Louis do not appear to have had any children. Muriel died in Bayside, Queens’ New York on 27th November 1981.

“Knitting” a WW1 song 

Written and composed by Muriel E Bruce and Baron Alotti in about 1915, this patriotic song is dedicated to The Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire. The song refers to the struggle of the men on the battlefield, the conditions they face and the loss of comrades beside them, while at home the needles are lovingly busy knitting for the brave sons, brothers, fathers and lovers.   The sheet music was published by Chappell & Co. Ltd. and the cover was illustrated by the Starmer brothers. 

Volume 2 of "Female Poets of the First World War" features a guest article written by Historian Phil Dawes entitled "Knitting - A Labour of Love" about knitting in WW1 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Female-Poets-First-World-War/dp/1909643173/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540990155&sr=1-11

Muriel also wrote other songs during the First World War:  

Kitchener’s Question.

“Why aren’t you in Khaki? /This means you! / Any old excuse won’t do,” flooded the streets during recruitment marches with the intention of inspiring the enlistment of Britain’s sons. The success of Muriel Bruce’s collection of songs grants her the honour of common historiographical representation as thetoken women when discussing entertainment on the Canadian home front.” From “The War on Score:  Ontarian Women’s Songs during The Great War” by Karina Stellato March 29, 2019

“Twilight Dreams”

Very similar to her song “Knitting”, and written in 1916, it is dedicated ‘To my soldier,’ and sings about sitting knitting socks while waiting and dreaming for her beloved to come home.  As the knitter falls asleep, she dreams her dear brave man has come home, only to wake and find herself alone.  Published in London by The Frederick Harris Co. it includes the first page of the “Knitting” song and the cover was illustrated by the Starmer brothers.

Sources: 

http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bruce_muriel

https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:89910/

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?106093

http://ramaracardendalton.com/geneology/getperson.php?personID=I00459&tree=BRUCE

https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/blog/recording-music-first-world-war-do-you-know-these-musicians

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/95412/1/Research%20Project2%20-%20Karina%20Stellato.pdf

http://www.perfessorbill.com/ragtime9a.shtml#starmer