Looking back from the perspective of 2014, it is easy to dismiss Jessie Pope's versified jingoism as a glib call to patriotism and as a facile celebration of the stereotypical British character: brave, stoical and essentially benevolent - reluctantly going to war to teach Germany a lesson. However, insofar as they capture the public mood at the start of the First World War - a mood they helped to create, of course - they are valuable documents. Her derogatory comments against Germany and Germans in general were part and parcel of the propaganda of the day - produced in great quantities by the...