Frank Stuart Flint (1885 – 1960) – British poet

Frank Stuart Flint was born on 19th December 1885 in Barnsbury, Islington, North London, UK.  His parents were William T. Flint and his wife Harriett A Flint. Frank left school when he was 13 and began work.  

On the 1901 Census Frank is listed as being “a lad in a belt warehouse’.  In 1904, he began his long and distinguished career in the Civil Service, and in 1908 he published a book about French poets.  By 1910, his intensive private study had gained him recognition as one of Britain's most highly informed authorities on modern French poetry. His first collection of poems was “In the Net of the Stars”  published in 1909.

F.S. Flint is mostly known for his participation in the "School of Images" with Ezra Pound and T. E. Hulme in 1909, about which he gave an account in the "Poetry Review" in 1909, and which was to serve as the theoretical basis for the later Imagist movement (1913). His subsequent association with Ezra Pound and T. E. Hulme, together with his deepening knowledge of innovative French poetic techniques, radically affected his own poetry's development.

Although F.S. Flint did not serve in the First World War, he did write a poem about soldiers in the war - see below. After the war he became a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Labour. As a poet and translator he was a prominent member of the Imagist group. Ford Madox Ford called him "one of the greatest men and one of the beautiful spirits of the country".

With the exception of some short works arising from his activities as a civil servant, Frank ceased writing for publication in the early 1930s.

“ Lament”

The young men of the world

Are condemned to death.

They have been called up to die

For the crime of their fathers.

The young men of the world,

The growing, the ripening fruit,

Have been torn from their branches,

While the memory of the blossom

Is sweet in women's hearts;

They have been cast for a cruel purpose

Into the mashing-press and furnace.

The young men of the world

Look into each other's eyes,

And read there the same words:

Not yet! Not yet!

But soon perhaps, and perhaps certain.

The young men of the world

No longer possess the road:

The road possesses them.

They no longer inherit the earth:

The earth inherits them.

They are no longer the masters of fire:

Fire is their master;

They serve him, he destroys them.

They no longer rule the waters:

The genius of the seas

Has invented a new monster,

And they fly from its teeth.

They no longer breathe freely:

The genius of the air

Has contrived a new terror

That rends them into pieces.

The young men of the world

Are encompassed with death

He is all about them

In a circle of fore and bayonets.

Weep, weep, o women,

And old men break your hearts.

“In the Net of the Stars” , BiblioBazaar (Jun 2009) ISBN 978-1-110-85842-2

Cadences, Poetry Bookshop. London, 1915

Sources: “Poetry of the First World War” edited by Marcus Clapham Pp. 58 and 265.

Wikipedia, Find my Past.

Poem and photograph from https://allpoetry.com/poem/8585373-Lament-by-F-S-Flint

John Peale Bishop (1892 –1944) - American poet and WW1 soldier

John Peale Bishop was born in Charles Town, West Virginia, USA on 21st May 1892.  His family were from New England. John was educated in Hagerstown, Maryland and Mercersburg Academy. When he was 18, John became seriously illl and temporarily lost his eyesight. He entered Princeton University in 1913, at the age of 21, where he became friends with Edmund Wilson and F. Scott Fitzgerald and was the editor of the Nassau Literary Magazine. 

After graduating from Princeton in 1917 John served with the American Army’s 33rd Infantry Regiment for two years in Europe. 

Following the war, John returned to the United States and wrote poetry as well as essays and reviews for “Vanity Fair” magazinein New York City. In 1922 he married Margaret Hutchins, and they moved to France, where they lived until 1933, interrupted by a stint for Paramount Pictures in New York (1925–26). While in France they bought the Château de Tressancourt at Orgeval, Seine et Oise, near Paris, where they raised three sons.

In 1931 John waw awarded the $5,000 prize in “Scribner's” Magazine's long short story contest with "Many Thousands Gone," one of his best known works.

John and his family returned to the United States in 1933 , residing first in Connecticut, then New Orleans, and finally in a house on Cape Cod.  

John then became chief poetry reviewer for “The Nation” Magazine (1940). In 1941-1942 he served as Publications Director in the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and was then invited to be resident fellow at the Library of Congress. He died within a few months of his appointment, on 4th April 1944, in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Poetry Collection by John Peale Bishop : “Green Fruit, poetry” published in 1917

Sources: “Poetry of the First World War” edited by Marcus Clapham Pp 32, 33 and 363;  

Find my Past, Wikipedia and image from 

https://sites.williams.edu/searchablesealit/b/bishop-john-peale/

Photo of John Peale Bishop from https://pennyspoetry.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peale_Bishop

Wikipedia Entry for John Peale Bishop's WW1 Drafing Card:

World War I Draft Registration Cards

Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States

John Peale

Residence Jefferson County

Last name Bishop

State West Virginia

Sex Male

Country United States

Birth year 1892

NARA series M1509

Birth date 21 May 1892

Record set World War I Draft Registration Cards

Place of birth as transcribed Charles Town,West Virginia

Category Military, armed forces & conflict

Birth country United States

Subcategory First World War

Registration year 1917-1918

Collections from Americas, United States

Citizenship country United States

"In the Dordogne" a WW1 poem by John Peale Bishop: