Author: Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913)

Publication: Holloway Jingles

Publisher: Glasgow Branch of the W.S.P.U (Women's Social and Political Union)

Published: 1912

Place of publication: Glasgow, Scotland

Publication type: Chapbook

No full copy of this poem is available.

Archive/Library: National Library of Scotland
Classmark(s): RB.s.591
Pages(s): 30

This poem appears in Holloway Jingles, a collection of poems written by militant suffragettes serving sentences in Holloway Prison during March and April, 1912, which were compiled by a Glaswegian inmate, Nancy A. John, and subsequently published by the Glasgow branch of the W.S.P.U. (the militarist Women's Social and Political Union).  The poem, the final one in Holloway Jingles, is written by Emily Wilding Davison, one of the best remembered suffragettes who adocated extreme tactics and stood in front of King George V's horse at the Epsom Derby, which struck her and ultimately resulted in her death.  In Holloway Prison, in June 1912, she threw herself down a ten-foot iron staircase.  The poem is a rallying cry to the suffragettes to march 'fearless through the darkness' as 'the glorious dawn is breaking': 'Freedom's clarion call is sounding, / Fousing all the world to wisdom'.  A note is included with this poem, 'April 28th, 1912', presumably when the poem was written.