C. Fox Smith (1882–1954)

Smith cannot be said to have burnished her reputation with this thin (78 pp.) volume of poems published at the height of the Great War. The book is a collection of poems previously published in magazines, mainly relating to the merchant navy, with a few at the end relating to the Western Front. Perhaps the descriptions of rumoured atrocities by the enemy, and in one case the justification for the murder of a prisoner by the Allies, were popular themes at the time, but I hope we can now see them as standard demonisations by 'othering'. In all fairness, there are a few poems that are not overshadowed by the war, but too many leave a bad taste in the mouth. Urgh.… (meer)