A Certain Poetess

A poetic voice characterised by futility, satire and horror, and articulated in the poems of Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and other "soldier-poets", has shaped a particular, dominant version of the First World War. Jessie Pope's reputation as an ultra-jingoistic supporter of the war is a one-sided characterisation that has obscured a more multi-faceted, popular writer, who was a successful brand in her day. This chapter aims to illuminate Pope's wartime public persona and argues that it was created by a business-woman whose career was founded on her ability to write quickly, with wit and satire, and with a feeling for the public mood. The war generated a multiplicity of voices and in literature these voices are not always the voice of the writer him/herself, at least not for the professional, popular writer who was writing for a market. Like many voices from the Great War, Pope's voice creates a more complex and interesting alternate space.