04 September 2023
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Dr David McKinstry takes us on a decade-by-decade tour of the 20th century, through the medium of verse.
1900s
As Victoria lay in state
Britain looked back upon Empire
And took financial stock,
Whilst America leapt forward
As Wrights took flight
On the Kitty Hawk.
The Kaiser demanded
A place in the sun,
Xenophobia gained cultural currency
Coining insult “The Hun”.
For franchise women protested
No longer confined to house,
Whilst government subjected them
To a game of cat and mouse.[i]
In Eire the storms
Again began to gather,
Dublin demanding home rule,
But Ulster was for Union
Branding nationalists as Rome rule.
Labour Party was founded
Workers Clause Four defined,
Within twenty-years in Government
Whilst Liberals fortunes declined.
The Edwardian Era
A decade of flight and radio innovation,
Whilst Britain’s brutality was still administered
On Boers in camps of concentration.
1910s
Passchendaele
From dreaming spires
And county shires
They came to fight at Passchendaele.
From every village hall
They answered Albion’s call
For on that field
They dare not fail.
One yard the more
One thousand the less,
Whilst mothers wept
As they received the news
By postal address.
In dining rooms
Fathers quietly cry,
For telling their sons
Tales of courage
Based upon a Kipling lie.
1920s
Women gained the franchise
And Flappers were all the rage,
Whilst Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise
Exposed the dark side of Jazz Age.
Skyscrapers arose
To define cityscape anew,
Whilst Gershwin’s sound soared
In Rhapsody in Blue.
Versailles was greeted
With German derision,
Whilst Jolson gave movies sound
And Logie Baird’s box gave vision.
Back in Blighty post-war depression
Witnessed wage cuts
And unemployment hike,
Whilst workers seeing
No homes fit for heroes
Organised a General Strike.
Volstead’s short-sighted folly
Gave rise to Capone’s corporation
Profiting from booze ban,
Whilst Eliot penned desolate
Vision of The Waste Land.
The Roaring Twenties
Flapper, Prohibition, Gangster,
And an American economy
That war-ruined Europe
Could not compete,
But U.S. hubris had a price
Which was paid beyond Wall Street.
1930s
The ill winds of Wall Street
Blew eastwards across Europe,
And gave sail to Swastika flag
As it was hoisted above Reichstag.
As dole queues stretched
The masses could barely
Eat week too weak,
Whilst the silver screen
Supplied escapist relief
As Fred and Ginger
Danced cheek to cheek.
FDR entered the White House
Proclaiming the only thing to fear
Was fear itself,
Putting white folks back to work
Whilst leaving civil rights on the shelf.
Picasso moved from Surrealism
To brutal realism,
As Guernica became artistic legend
Which bore bloody witness
To Nazi Condor legion.
By thirties close
The high priest of butchery
Washed his hands in blood,
Whilst donning a brown shirt robe,
Marching misery across Europe
And spreading race hate around the globe.
1940s
Visionaries
As winter turned to spring
And Churchill’s bombast stilled,
The nation turned to quiet Clem
Voting for a rebuild.
Up went the homes
Finally for heroes to fit,
Down went the miners
Into nationalised pit.
Nye valued good health
Stuffed doctors’ mouths with gold,
As a price worth paying
For an NHS to behold.
Castle insisted family allowance
To women be paid,
Then came the pension
Taking care of all
From cradle to grave.
Proletarian petals began to flower
In schools that planted sixties swinging,
The light of knowledge shining
To the echoes of Jerusalem singing.
Through blitz storm they stood firm
When Nazi was at the gate,
Then with worn out tools
Turned to build a welfare state.
1950s
Supermac declared
You’ve “never had it so good”,
For sure,
But was content
To don his tweeds
And escape to his
Private grouse moor.
The Carry On Team’s
Slap and tickle humour
To some, seemed banal,
But at least it was funnier
Than invading the Suez Canal.
Elvis thrilled the new teenagers
With his rock and roll passions,
Whilst middle-aged mothers’
Still queued for their rations.
The Goons rioted on the wireless
With their crazed humour,
Whilst news of Churchill’s stroke
Was not a broadcastable rumour.
The fifties, a decade
Before we truly danced
Whilst the Fab Four were singing,
But were still content
To see Ruth Ellis swinging.
1960s
The swinging sixties,
Where to start?
On one side the Summer of Love
The other “Till Death Us Do Part”.
The winter of sixty-three
Covered the country in a white sheet,
The autumn of sixty-four ushered in Labour
Promising “White Heat”.
Jagger swaggered
And sang the Blues,
Whilst Enoch ranted
Racist Views.
In the space race
America shot ahead,
Whilst killing King
And shooting Kennedys’ dead.
The Fab Four started with twee
“Love me Do”
And ended with rocking
“Polythene Pam”,
Whilst Baby-boomers
Tuned in and dropped out
Burning incense and a hint of Napalm.
1970s
A more naïve and innocent time
Where no one scratched their head,
Whilst Eric and Ernie
Were sharing a double bed.
The miners were still underground
Whilst the Wombles were overground
And Wombling free,
Virginia won Wimbledon
In the silver jubilee.
The only platforms
Were of oil and of shoes,
Whilst “Love Thy Neighbour”
Broadcast racist views.
Woolies and Pick n’ Mix
Were our weekly treat,
Whilst thirteen lay dead
On Derry Street.
The seventies, a decade
Of riotous bad taste,
Whilst workers had rights
Before Thatcher’s industrial waste.
1980s
Keegan Perm gave way to Mullet
And CD replaced LP,
Whilst Essex boys whistled
Maggie’s the girl for me.
Unemployment was rising
Whist Belgrano was sinking,
We were told to consume
Without conscience or thinking.
The nation watched
Royal wedding at St. Pauls’,
Whilst we prayed in our new
Cathedrals of shopping malls.
We were told to “Tell Sid”
To buy his gas shares,
But something was smelling
more than the industry
They were selling.
We rocked at Live Aid
Whilst gravestones told us,
“Don’t die of Ignorance”
Of our own Aids.
The eighties, a decade
decadence and dole,
Hoodwinked by market forces
As we sold our national soul.
1990s
Tarantino blazed the silver screen
Travolta and Jackson’s dialogues
Became common diction,
Whilst Major’s government
“Back to Basics”
Acted out its’ own Pulp Fiction.
Top clubs capitalised
As football became the national creed,
Forming the premiership
To cash-in on their brand greed.
Joey and Chandler
Played out their bromance,
Whilst frenemies Tony and Gordon
Tangoed in their own power dance.
Black American youth
Were innovating with Hip-Hop,
Whilst British lads rehashed the 60s
And launched it as Brit-pop
The Spice Girls took over the world
Heard on the radio every hour,
Whilst watching Diana’s funeral cortege
We fell silent
Out of respect for her girl power.
The nineties, a decade
Of nostalgia and innovation,
When Britannia no longer
Ruled the waves,
But Cool Britannia
Ruled the cultural waves.
By David Michael McKinstry
About the author
Dr David McKinstry teaches History at Holyrood Secondary School in Glasgow. He is a specialist in the American Civil Rights Movement and is the author of “We Shall Overcome”. As well as writing history books and articles David writes poetry and his verse is extensively published in Scotland and internationally as well as being broadcast on radio where he is a regular contributor to Radio Scotland. His poem, “To Our Children”, was recently recited on the Afternoon Show to critical acclaim. David’s poems on our website “Decade by Decade”, are ten poems that chart the decades of the 20th century. They focus on Britain, yet also address wider historical events including the Wall Street crash and the rise of Fascism. David is currently working on a collected works, “Viral Verse”. He lives in Glasgow with his son and can be contacted at [email protected]
[i] The Cat and Mouse Act was introduced in 1913. However, I have employed poetic licence as the Edwardian Era was seen by historians to last until 1914 which was four years after Edward VII had died.
(Image copyright Tuck DB Postcards)
