Observations placeholder
Knight, Dame Laura and Jessie Pope 02
Identifier
024361
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Poem by JESSIE POPE
Born (1868) in Leicester. Educated at Craven House, Leicester and North London Collegiate School. Jessie was a popular journalist and versifier. She was a regular contributor to Punch, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Express. She died in 1941. Wilfred Owen originally addressed "Dulce et Decorum Est" to her.
Corporal J.D.M Pearson, GC, WAAF (1940) – shows the first woman to receive the Empire Gallantry Medal, Women's Auxiliary Air Force, Corporal Daphne Pearson. Although Pearson, at Knight's insistence, sat for the portrait holding a rifle, the finished painting shows her holding a respirator, as the WAAF were not allowed to carry arms on duty.
A description of the experience
Socks
Shining pins that dart and click
In the fireside’s sheltered peace
Check the thoughts that 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 1, 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 and where he’s been;
He’ll come out on top, somehow -
Slip 1, knit 2, purl 14.