Overview

The poem is a World War One propaganda piece that uses sporting metaphors to encourage young men to enlist. It presents war as a thrilling and noble challenge, downplaying its dangers and appealing to masculine pride and patriotism.

Main themes

The poem explores patriotism, masculinity, guilt, honour, duty, and propaganda.

Tone and voice

The tone is upbeat, persuasive, and emotionally manipulative. The speaker uses a direct second-person voice to challenge the reader, creating a sense of urgency and personal responsibility. Rhetorical questions dominate, reinforcing the pressure to conform and enlist.

Context

Written in 1915 during World War One, the poem reflects the British government’s recruitment efforts. Jessie Pope was a journalist and poet whose work appeared in newspapers like the Daily Mail. Her romanticised view of war was later criticised by poets such as Wilfred Owen, who exposed its brutal realities in poems like “Dulce et Decorum Est”, originally dedicated to Pope.

Form and structure

The poem consists of four quatrains with regular rhyme and rhythm. It uses anapestic metre to create a lively, energetic pace. The structure reinforces the idea of war as orderly and exciting. Repetition of rhetorical questions and simple language make the poem accessible and persuasive.

Poetic devices to spot

• Refrain – rhetorical questions like “Who’s for the game? “ repeated to provoke and challenge.
• Metaphor – war is described as a “game“, trivialising its violence and danger.
• Colloquial language – phrases like “toe the line “ and “ sit tight “ create a friendly, informal tone.
• Alliteration – “grip and tackle “ evokes sport and action.
• Euphemism – war is framed as “fun“ and “noble “, masking its brutality.
• Direct address – second-person pronouns (“you “) create intimacy and pressure.
• Contrast – between those who fight and those who “lie low “, reinforcing guilt and shame.
• Tone – jolly, persuasive, and emotionally charged.

by Jessie Pope

Who’s for the game, the biggest that’s played,
The red crashing game of a fight?
Who’ll grip and tackle the job unafraid?
And who thinks he’d rather sit tight?

Who’ll toe the line for the signal to ‘Go!’?
Who’ll give his country a hand?
Who wants a turn to himself in the show?
And who wants a seat in the stand?

Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much–
Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?
Who would much rather come back with a crutch
Than lie low and be out of the fun?

Come along, lads –
But you’ll come on all right –
For there’s only one course to pursue,
Your country is up to her neck in a fight,
And she’s looking and calling for you.

The text of this poem is available in the CCEA Poetry Anthology, which can be downloaded from the CCEA website.

The BBC is not responsible for the contents of any other sites listed.

A now somewhat notorious propaganda piece in which the writer directly addresses young men and invites them to join the “game” of war, downplaying its realities to romanticise and idealise military service. First published in 1915.

• Title: An invitation phrased as a rhetorical question; use of euphemism “the game” to make war sound less like a fight and more like a sport or pastime.

• Themes: Sportsmanship, pride, patriotism, honour, guilt, participation.

• Tone: Euphemistic, lively, stirring, persuasive, positive, upbeat, blithe, jolly.

• Speaker: Uses second person – “you” – to directly address the reader in a conversational and inclusive way.

• Jessie Pope was an English writer born in 1868 and privately educated at an all-girls school before earning an independent living as a children’s author and then a writer of humour and satire. Her work was published in popular magazines like Punch and her first two poetry collections were published in the early years of the twentieth century; these focused mostly on humorous observations.
• Pope’s passionate nationalism meant that, when World War One broke out in 1914, she began penning verse aimed at encouraging young men to enlist in the army. Her established relationship with many national publications gave her a wide platform in newspapers like the Daily Mail (widely read by working class men). Her simple, upbeat style and tendency toward humour made her poems easily understood by the young male readers who were eligible to join the war effort.
  
  She had little to no contact with the conflict herself; her simplistic and jingoistic takes on the horror of war would soon appal many who had experienced its grisly trauma first-hand. Among these was Wilfred Owen, who actually dedicated the early versions of Dulce et Decorum Est, his famously grim anti-war poem about conditions in the trenches, to Pope directly (though this dedication was changed to “a certain poetess” and later removed altogether).
• Pope’s extended metaphor of war as a game or sport was first used in another of her poems, Play the Game, published in 1914. Upon the declaration of war that year, almost all governing bodies for British sport announced the suspension of official competitions; football was an exception to this, maintaining its season fixtures until the end of the 1914/15 season and causing great controversy. Pope, who was accustomed to satirising news stories of the day, took on the topic in a critical poem, pointing out that those who wanted to play or watch football should instead be duty-bound to “play” a different “game”.
  
  She was by no means the first or only writer to use the image of conflict as a sporting pastime or a competitive game. Pope’s own ongoing connection between sport (especially football, perceived as a favourite of the working classes) and war started with the conceit of Play the Game.

Only a little context is needed for each poem; where used, it should be applied to the point you're making.

• Who’s for the Game? is divided into four quatrains (four line stanzas), a simplistic structure that neatly organises itself into something recognisable and easy to read for those unaccustomed to poetry. The stanzas are uniform in length and conform to a set pattern, perhaps harking back to Pope’s days as a children’s author and her tendency to keep things simple, or perhaps mirroring the uniformity and conformity required of a soldier in a regiment.

• The poetic metre is regular, keeping the poem simple and reassuring in its consistency and offering the reader no jarring surprises. The rhythmic pattern mostly uses anapests – a three-beat da-da-DUM rhythm – to create a jaunty waltzing rhythm that captures the energy Pope is trying to create in motivating young men to enlist in the army. Many of the lines start with a stressed syllable, then fall into the anapest pattern:
  
  Who | wants a turn | to him-self | in the show |
  DUM | da-da-DUM | da-da-DUM | da-da-DUM |
  
  The first stressed beat ensures the poem sounds confident and decisive at the start of every line. The one-two-three rhythm, with the emphasis on the third beat, gives the poem pace and momentum, sweeping the reader along in a fervent drive to recruit them.

• The rhyme scheme of alternate rhyming lines throughout gives the poem a reassuring predictability and satisfaction, making it sound pleasing and complete, and reinforcing the sense of regularity. There is also some use of internal rhyme – “toe” and “go” in the second stanza, for example, or “much” and “crutch” in the third – which gives the language a sense of playfulness and fun. This supports the breezy tone and happy-go-lucky atmosphere the poet is trying to create.

• Rhetorical questions: The entire basis of the poem revolves around a series of rhetorical questions, in which the poet asks who will join in the “game” of war – the first three stanzas are composed entirely of questions. The questions engage the reader, prompting them to give an answer themselves; the relentlessness of the format, coupled with the positive imagery it mostly presents, encourages a positive response from the reader. Pope then offers the resolution of an answer in the final stanza – that “there’s only one course to pursue”, combining opinion and hyperbole to make it seem like the only option for any truly worthy person is to sign up and join the war effort.

• Metaphor: Pope employs an extended metaphor as the basis for the poem, comparing the prospect of serving in war to the experience of playing a sport. The euphemisticmetaphor of war as “the game” is twofold – use of “the” implies there only is one definitive “game”, and that everybody knows what it is without further explanation, elevating this to the status of the most famous or most important example. A “game” is something played – an enjoyable pastime, the opposite of work – and also refers to the matches played in various sports: competitive, healthy, fun, exciting, physically challenging and often involving teamwork, which suggests camaraderie and positive relationships.
  
  Pope uses terminology from specific sports like rugby (the active verbs “grip” and “tackle”, which evoke a sense of physical strength) and uses the somewhat brash imagery of a “red crashing game”, implicitly signalling blood and violence but pairing it with “fight” to evoke a boisterous boxing match, another sport popular with young men. She employs the allusion of watching a match by comparing the active spectacle of the “show” to the passive watcher on his “seat in the stand”. This sporting imagery was relatable for an audience of young men and illustrates the experience of going to war as being akin to playing on a rough-and-tumble sports team – offering action, thrills, and fun.

• Caesurae: While question marks are used to offset the many questions used in the first three stanzas and evoke a lively, interrogative tone, there are other uses of caesurae within the poem – for instance, when Pope adds an aside or additional clause to another idea. The two notable examples of this are the uses of parenthetical dashes surrounding “not much” in stanza three and “but you’ll come on alright” in stanza four. “It won’t be a picnic” is the closest Pope comes to admitting war is anything less than glamorous excitement, and she then qualifies this understatement with the addition of the aside “not much”, surrounded by dashes to create a dramatic caesural pause.
  
  The effect is one of emphasis on the aside, undercutting the statement that it won’t be a “picnic” and helping to dismiss that idea in favour of resumed positivity towards joining up. Similarly, “but you’ll come on alright” is emphasised by the dashes to reassure the reader they are personally capable of meeting the challenge of engaging in the war.

Who knows it won’t be a picnic – not much –
Yet eagerly shoulders a gun?

• Repetition: The repeated use of “Who” in the form ofanaphora creates a relentless searching quality that is pointedly addressing the reader and encouraging them to step up by volunteering themselves. Repetition creates emphasis on the thing that is repeated, and in this poem Pope intends to emphasise the fact that the reader’s identity, and their agreement and involvement, is the obvious answer to her repeated question.

Who’ll toe the line for the signal to ‘Go!’?
Who’ll give his country a hand?
Who wants a turn to himself in the show?

• Colloquial language: Pope’s use of everyday or colloquial language is part of what made her poems accessible and persuasive. She uses idioms (conversational expressions) throughout – “sit tight”, “toe the line”, “give… a hand”, “lie low”, “up to her neck”; these are informal metaphors which the reader can easily recognise, and which make the speaker sound friendly and familiar. The informal term “lads” addresses the reader, making clear Pope’s intended audience of young men.
  
  The abbreviation of “Who is” into “Who’s” similarly gives a friendly, casual tone, while the use of litotes in “it won’t be a picnic – not much” creates an ironic pocket of humour, despite the fact it is relating to one of the few instances in the whole poem that even slightly acknowledges war will not be all fun and games. The effect of the understatement here contributes to Pope’s overall euphemistictone, in which she glosses over the horror and violence of war and makes it sound like a jolly adventure to which everyone should willingly contribute.

This is not a list of every method or notable use of language and structure in Who’s for the Game?.

Look at the poem again. Can you find any of the following?

If you have found these methods, consider what you know about the poem and the poet already.

What effects do these methods create? Why has she used them?

• Vitaï Lampada' – another poem using the metaphor of war as a game or sport and encouraging young men to enlist, although portraying a slightly more realistic sense of what this would entail.

• Anthem for Doomed Youth – Owen’s work stands in (sometimes specific) opposition to Pope’s, and his well-informed experiences and anti-war stance provide a complete contrast to her poetry.

• The Man He Killed – a first person account of a young man who fought in a war, which offers some interesting parallels with Who’s for the Game? by giving personal insight into the reasons for enlisting and experiences of fighting. These might have been shared by many of Pope’s readers.

Use these questions to hone your knowledge of Who’s For The Game?, and to practise using your notes and analysis in organised paragraphs that focus on how particular themes or ideas are shown in the poem. There is an example answer in the following section to demonstrate how you can do this.

• What poetic methods does Pope use to persuade the reader in Who’s For The Game??
• How does Pope create a sense that enlisting is worthwhile in Who’s For The Game??
• What does Who’s For The Game? show us about Pope’s attitude to the war effort?
• How does Pope create a confident tone in Who’s For The Game??

Below is a demonstration of how to use the material in this section to answer an example essay question. The answer below is not a full essay, but only an extract of a longer answer, showing some of the points that could be made.

Q: What poetic methods does Pope use to persuade the reader in Who’s For The Game?

A: Most poems are discussed using the terms ‘speaker’ and ‘reader’. However, with Jessie Pope’s 1915 poem Who’s for the Game?, it may be more helpful to think of it in terms of the poet (since the poem lacks a speaker persona and uses second person to directly address readers) and the audience. The purpose of this poem is clearly one of propaganda, intending to persuade as many young men as possible to enlist in the war effort during World War One. Pope, a former children’s author and humourist, already had a wide platform in national publications like the Daily Mail. Poems like Who’s for the Game? were recruitment tools, written in simple, accessible language and using imagery relatable to an audience of mostly working class young men. In this case, the metaphor of war as a kind of game or sport. The poem is divided into four quatrains, has a regular rhyme scheme and uses mostly regular metre (often employing anapests to evoke an energetic, waltzing rhythm that promises action and adventure), offering no structural surprises for the audience; it is recognisable as a poem by those who would not have read much poetry, and it is reassuring in its form and regularity, suggesting the idea it proposes (joining the army) is also regular and secure. Pope’s use of simple form and language makes the idea accessible and attractive, the first step in building rapport and persuading the audience.

As mentioned, Pope employs an extended metaphor as the basis for the poem, comparing the prospect of serving in war to the experience of playing a sport. The euphemisticmetaphor of war as “the game” is twofold – use of “the” implies there only is one definitive “game”, and that everybody knows what it is without further explanation, elevating this to the status of the most famous or most important example. A “game” is something played – an enjoyable pastime, the opposite of work – and also refers to the matches played in various sports: competitive, healthy, fun, exciting, physically challenging and often involving teamwork, which suggests camaraderie and positive relationships. Pope uses terminology from specific sports like rugby (the active verbs “grip” and “tackle”, which evoke a sense of physical strength) and uses the somewhat brash imagery of a “red crashing game”, implicitly signalling blood and violence but pairing it with “fight” to evoke a boisterous boxing match, another sport popular with young men. She employs the allusion of watching a match by comparing the active spectacle of the “show” to the passive watcher on his “seat in the stand”. This sporting imagery was relatable for an audience of young men and illustrates the experience of going to war as being akin to playing on a rough-and-tumble sports team, offering action, thrills, and fun. All these sentiments would have been extremely persuasive for Pope’s audience.

This essay could go on to make the following points, backed up by evidence from the poem and detailed analysis of that evidence:

• Pope uses rhetorical questions to engage the reader and then employs hyperbole and opinion to offer an ‘answer’, effectively persuading her audience to volunteer themselves.
• Pope uses repetition and caesurae for emphasis, highlighting her message and persuading the audience it is right.
• Pope uses personification to appeal to traditional masculinity and persuade her audience to identify as heroes and join the war effort.