Examine How Some Propaganda Poets in the Early Stages of the World War One

During the early stages of world war one; before conscription was introduced in 1916, young men were pressured/persuaded into joining the army on their own behalf. This was not an easy task for the men to do themselves, and signing up would not have been successful without the aid of Propaganda poems, posters, leaflets and many more recruitment documents for the public eye. Recruitment/propaganda poems were the most popular way to get young men to enlist, and thus meant they were very effective. One of the most popular propaganda poems is ‘Fall In’ written by Harold Begbie which appeared in the Daily Chronicle on 31 Aug 1914.

In this poem, Begbie uses many clever, sneaky tricks to mock the young men into enlisting. The poem itself is about the pressure that was placed on men, as society saw going to war as ‘the norm’, as well as self-image for the men being judged by the public. Begbie targets his poem at the non-conformists and suggests throughout the poem that those whom do not enlist will be mocked, ashamed and regretful. The poem has four stanzas, with rhyming couplets of ABAB. Each of the stanzas are aimed to make the men think about each perspective of every person they may have in their life.

Cleverly, the first stanza is used to make men think about how the women are going to react when all the men who enlisted come back, making them question whether the girls will walk by them, or run up to them with proud nourishment and honour. Begbie writes ‘what will you lack sonny when the girls line up the street/shouting their love to the lads come back’ which encourages the men to join because they don’t want to be the only men without girls grateful of them, they will lack something all the soldiers didn’t – therefore explaining that some men joined in an attempt to get girls.

In the second stanza, it is about what their children will think about them if they do, or do not join. The line ‘But where will you look when they give you the glance, that tells you they know you funked? ’ in the stanza asks the men where will they look when their children realize ‘their father didn’t join war’ and wasn’t as heroic and the rest of the men who did. This is a use of emotional blackmail by Begbie, aimed at the men, because if they didn’t join they’d feel guilty ashamed in the future, as would their children.

The third Stanza is about how the men would feel within themselves, as well as the other men who did enlist. ‘Will you slink away, as it were from a blow, your old head shamed and bent? ’ shows how they will potentially act when ‘the neighbours’ are talking about the war. Finally, the fourth stanza is telling the men to do it for their country ‘Britain’s call is Gods’. Begbie uses this because everybody was religious and strongly believed in god, and therefore involving Britain’s call to God is a powerful statement, putting more pressure on the men to join.

Begbie uses a series of questions repeatedly, such as ‘where will you look Sonny’ and ‘what will you lack sonny’ which is intended to make the readers/young men at the time question themselves, and their reasons for/for not enlisting, and force themselves to explain and justify why they don’t want to go war. Here, the repeated word ‘sonny’ is a use of colloquialism which makes the poem informal, and almost familiar to the young men who would be reading it.

This makes them trust what Begbie is saying in the poem, as well as belittles them, thus another way of making the young men feel they need to enlist. Another poem that was popular during the time period of 1914 onwards was Jessie Pope’s ‘Who’s for the game’ which is persuading young men to join the war. The poem is written in a conversational manner so that it is more memorable and persuasive to the readers. The whole intention of the poem is to play heavily on the young men’s guilt and promotes the so called ‘glory’ of war through jingoism.

It has four stanzas, each of which filled with persuasive techniques and also a sense of organisation with rhyming couplets of AB, AB. Like Begbie’s ‘Fall in’, Pope uses a series of rhetorical questions and repetition throughout the poem such as ‘who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid? ’ and ‘who’ll toe the line for a signal to ‘Go! ’? Both of these questions are made to sound like the war is some sort of sport/game (an extended metaphor throughout), which makes the men think that it will be fun and they will get a sudden thrill out of it like whilst playing football.

Also, as well as the use of an extended metaphor, Pope uses an idiomatic expression in the line ‘Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much-‘ which is the only hint of reality, that war isn’t a game/fun. Another clever way of reaching out to the men is the use of personification ‘your country is up to her neck in a fight, and she’s looking and calling for you. ’ This is also a form of emotional blackmail, making the men feel morally responsible to help their country, as well as the use of ‘she’ which akes the men want to help even more so because of the feminism. Much like Begbie’s poem, Pope also uses colloquialism aimed at working class ‘lads’ to belittle them – a harsh, but effective technique. Another important aspect of this poem is the pace and rhythm of it, it is very fast and upbeat, almost as if pope is cheering the men on into joining the ‘game. ’ Another one of Jessie Pope’s poems ‘The call’ is similarly written to ‘Who’s for the game? ’ and was published in the Daily mail.

It is a jingoistic recruitment poem which does not, like the other poems, mention the horrors of war. Throughout this poem rhetorical questions interrogate the male readers, and endures a sense of guilt upon them. An example of this is ‘And who wants to save his skin’ implying the fact they’d be saving people’s lives if they enlisted, and if they didn’t enlist it comes across as if they didn’t care about saving any lives. The repetition of ‘laddie’ implies youth to the men, which is very informal and the use of ‘you’ throughout ‘the call’ is very personal.

Both of these draw the men into the propaganda intention of the poem because they are faked into trusting what Pope is saying about the war. There are three stanzas: each of which is positive, however at the end of every stanza there is a negative questioning of men whom will hold back, for example ‘and who’d rather wait a bit’, ‘who’ll stand and bite his thumbs’. This is a popular technique of emotional blackmail, which works by emotionally getting to the men as well as mocking the nerves they may have preventing them from enlisting. The city clerk’, written by J. A. Nicklin, is a for-war poem about men who was bored of their ‘safe’ upper class life (the class is hinted in the title of the poem as only upper class working men whom have a job title as a city clerk, or something of that nature), and therefore wished of enlisting. This is effective because it makes the men question whether they’ll get bored of their ‘ordinary’ life whilst others come back/they hear all of the fascinating heroic stories – making them want to join and experience the ‘fun’ life.

An important quote from the poem is ‘the rifle’s hug is closer than a girls’’ which is an important theme throughout, as well as that specific time period during war. This is because if the men stayed at home and didn’t fight for the country, they wouldn’t be wanted by the girls; however if they did enlist they would always have a weapon to hold, unlike the girls. Also, the upper class men soon got bored of working in their dull jobs ‘we were sick to death of ledger! ’ so they saw joining war as an escape from their usual routine, to endure some excitement in their lives.

The poem’s overall intention is to make the men want to enlist because they don’t want to miss out on the fun, and want to replace their boring lives with a rush of adrenaline, fighting for their country. The main thing all four poems have in common is the fact the poets didn’t mention the horrors of war. This could have been to lie to the men/people who hadn’t experienced what war was really like so that they would enlist, or simply because they lacked knowledge themselves of what war was truly like and how horrific the affects were to write anything different.

Another similarity is the use of rhetorical questions/repetitive questions to emphasise the point the poets were trying to get across to persuade the men to enlist which was very affective as it made the poems more intense, and demanding in the sense that the people reading would then question themselves after. Also, the poems were mostly all in 2nd person, which adds to the intense manner with a more personal approach, aiming right at the person reading the poem currently which also, emotionally, got to the men reading it, as they felt pressurised. The differences between the poems are mainly the tones of the poems.

Jessie pope’s poems ‘who’s for the game’ and ‘the call’ are much more upbeat and enthusiastic than Begbie’s and J. A. Nicklin’s. Begbie’s poem has more of a reflective tone to make the readers think deeper, and Nicklin’s poem is slightly upbeat/enthusiastic, however more realistic than pope’s. To conclude, Jingoistic/recruitment poetry is highly patriotic, and would have aimed to almost scare men to enlist, by threatening them with cowardice. The ideals of bravery, comradeship and fighting to defend loved ones and gain new loved ones aided many men to enlist, and cope with the war.