Shining pins that dart and click
In the fireside’s sheltered peace
Check the thoughts the cluster thick -
20 plain and then decrease.
He was brave – well, so was I –
Keen and merry, but his lip
Quivered when he said good-bye –
Purl the seam-stitch, purl and slip.
Never used to living rough,
Lots of things he’d got to learn;
Wonder if he’s warm enough –
Knit 2, catch 2, knit, turn.
Hark! The paper-boys again!
Wish that shout could be suppressed;
Keeps one always on the strain –
Knit off 9, and slip the rest.
Wonder if he’s fighting now,
What he’s done an’ where he’s been;
He’ll come out on top somehow –
Slip 1, knit 2, purl 14.
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Comments
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From guest Jessie Pope (contact)
i dont get it
(Have you reviewed the comments below the poem? Oldpoetry Team) -
not mockery
From guest dom (contact)
No way is Pope mocking the role of women - she's describing her own feelings and thoughts and activities and just happens to appear to be the very epitome of a "glorious woman" as Sassoon may have sarcastically put it. Poor Pope probably thought she was writing poetry that would be looked at as patriotic and inspirational but ended up appearing moronic and delusional. -
mockery
From guest daryl (contact)
i think she's is actually satirising the traditional role of the 'idealistic woman, ignorant at home'. As we know, woman took over the war effort in the home front and Pope is almost ironically taking up the war effort by fulfilling the duty of doing whatever she can for the boys at war. In this way, i think she is actually attempting to break gender biases by satirising 'the woman's role'. -
I feel this is a Mother talking to herself as she, like so many other women during the wars sat at home knitting socks and other garments for the 'boys' who were fighting. Though 'In the fireside’s sheltered peace' she cannot relax, the yell of the paper boys startles her, she does not like the sound, always on edge it seems, perhaps waiting for the telegraph boy to bring one of the dreaded messages of death or 'missing in action'. Worried about her boy as he has so much to learn.
The emotions here go very deep.
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