Hogsed, Hunter

Valle, Nathaniel Ross

Wilson, Hannah

English

Liberty University Digital Commons

Poetry as Social Justice in The English ReviewHunter Hogsed and Hannah WilsonEthnographic Textual Analysis• Conducted a comparative literature analysis through creating annotatedbibliographies of the July and August 1909 issues of The English Review• “The Joy of Labour” (July 1909) and “Daily Bread” (August 1909) werethe starting point• Studied the details of the lower working class lives in English cities in theearly 1900s as illustrated through the poemsThe English Review and Social IssuesProblem: “It is astonishing how little literature has to show of the life of the poor” (Hueffer 162)Solution: “principal aim of The English Review…to aid in the comprehension of one kind of mind by another” (163)Research Question: How did the poetry published in some of the first issues of The English Review seek to address class inequality and nonrepresentation?Thesis: The July and August 1909 issues published poetry, namely Thomas Burke’s “The Joy of Labour” and W. W. Gibson’s “Daily Bread,” that directly addressed the living and working conditions of the lower working class, bringing the attention of the middle and upper educated class to these harsh realities.Background and Research QuestionResearch MethodologyBoth Gibson and Burke, as well as several other authors published in the beginning issuesof The English Review, are excellent examples of poets who utilized their art and platformto speak for those who could not speak for themselves. They sought to understand thepoverty of their time and used their skill as writers to document what they saw in theworld so others could see it as well. Engaging in such a Humanities research project issignificant because of how it teaches us to observe a moment from the past that isdistinctly human and to adapt it to the present day for the benefit of modern society,modeling a tradition of art as a force for social change for the poor and voiceless.Future work in this research area would involve study of a wider range of issues of TheEnglish Review, particularly over its multiple decades of existence and its change ineditorial leadership, to evaluate whether addressing social issue through literature grew orfaded from importance to contributors of the Review as the decades went on.Wilfrid Wilson Gibson, “Daily Bread”• “Today, when we need more than ever before to emphasize the brotherhood of man and the dignity of earnest effort in all kinds of true labor, such books as…Daily Bread are especially valuable” (Dilla 237)• “Injuries, illness, death, and also the warping of mind or distortion of character caused by the struggle for daily bread are all shown with a sincere truthfulness, which does not neglect to show also individual faults and weaknesses not peculiar to the poor” (Dilla 45)Thomas Burke, “The Joy of Labour”• Uses sarcasm to drive home his point• Calls out the casual and ignorant attitudes of the general population towards the poor• Answers Hueffer’s question of what do the middle and upper classes know of the lives of the poor (161)Scan the QR codes for the July 1909 (left) and the August 1909 (right) issues of The English ReviewTHE JOY OF LABOUR By Thomas Burke (1909)(It was stated that prisoner's earnings were fifteen shillings a week. He had a wife and two children)THEY caught him lifting purses, And they took him to the beak. They said he was in reg'lar work At fifteen bob a week. It is a shocking thing to see A man become a thief, when he Is working reg'lar every day at fifteen bob a week. Oh! Fifteen bob a week! Fifteen bob a week! It's beer and skittles keeping kids on fifteen bob a week! He said the kids were poorly,And the roof let in the rain. The doctor said that strengthening food Would pull them round again. The parson called, and he confessed That things were ordered for the best; He hoped the chap was thankful for his fifteen bob a week. Oh! Fifteen bob a week! Fifteen bob a week! It's blazing fun to feed the kids on fifteen bob a week! So now he's tearing oakum, And the wife has gone and died. The local House was angered At her very foolish pride. They took the kids and labelled them As—Pauper Children N and MOf Convict X, who used to earn his fifteen bob a week. Oh! Fifteen bob a week! Fifteen bob a week! Oh, isn't life a bleeding sport on fifteen bob a week!“bob” = shillingsToday = $90/week for a family of fourUnraveling rope for hemp –prisoner’s punishmentNo name = dehumanizingCan’t afford better housingBad living conditions = sick children DAILY BREADBy Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1909)Scene: A garret in the slums, furnished only with a bed. It is nearly midnight; but Adah Robson, with hat and jacket on, and an old carpet-bag by her side, sits on an empty box by the window, in the light reflected from the lamp in the court below. Presently, a step is heard on the stairs; the door opens, and Isaac Oxley enters.Why did you never come for me?You said you would,When you had found…Isaac. When I had found a home for you.But, I have found no home.Adah. Yet this…Isaac. This is no home for you-This empty garret.But you can never live here-Here, in this reeking hell.And I-How could I bear to see you starve…Adah. To see me starve!Why should I starve?For I am strong ;And I can work.I, too, was strong;And I could work:And yet,I starve.1. A garret refers to the unfinished rough living spaces in London where the working class lived.2. Garrets were extremely terrible places to live and were extremely impoverished.3. Gibson describes the demoralizing nature of industrial life in England for the poor workers as working in the factories chipped away at the soul of a person.Burke, Thomas. “The Joy of Labour.” The English Review, vol. 2, no. 8, July 1909, pp. 636-637. Modernist Journals Project, repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:454348/PDF/.Dilla, Geraldine P. “A Contemporary English Poet in a School Edition.” The English Journal, vol. 10, no. 4, 1921, pp. 236-237. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/802129?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.Dilla, Geraldine P. “The Development of Wilfrid Wilson Gibson's Poetic Art.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 30, no. 1, 1922, pp. 39–56. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27533499. “Slum Housing in Providence Place, London, 1909.” The British Library, London Metropolitan Archives, www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/slums.Gibson, Wilfrid Wilson. “Daily Bread.” The English Review, vol. 2, no. 9, Aug. 1909, pp. 1-10. Modernist Journals Project, https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:452822/PDF/.Hueffer, Ford Madox. “Political and Diplomatic: The Unemployed.” The English Review, vol. 1, no. 1, Dec. 1908, pp. 161-164. Modernist Journals Project, repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:453036/PDF/.“Modernist Journals: English Review. Vol. 2, No. 8.” The English Review, Vol. 2, No. 8. Modernist Journals Project, modjourn.org/issue/bdr454348/.Price, Richard. “‘His Care for the Living English’: Ford Madox Ford and Basil Bunting.” Ford Madox Ford, Modernist Magazines and Editing, edited by Jason Harding, Brill, 2010, pp. 115-127.Wasti, Syed Munir. “The Emergence of the Georgian School of Poetry in England." Journal of European Studies, vol. 35, no. 2, 2019, pp. 59-64. ProQuest, www.proquest.com/docview/2298755226/fulltextPDF/2C8D13DF0D9C4097PQ/1?accountid=12085.Works CitedConclusions and Future Work“Fun, easy times”Mocking ignorant social attitudes “Modernist Journals: English Review. Vol. 2, No. 8.” The English Review, Vol. 2, No. 8. Modernist Journals Project,modjourn.org/issue/bdr454348/.“Slum Housing in Providence Place, London, 1909.” The British Library, London Metropolitan Archives, www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/slums.

Poetry as Social Justice in The English Review

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Poetry as Social Justice in The English Review

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