Comments on: Isaac Rosenberg, Poet & Painter

By: Andy Strowman

Andy Strowman — Sun, 07 Nov 2021 16:55:44 +0000

I guess through common experience many poets hail from Whitechapel and have such great gifts.
Untouched Unrecognised. A pity.

Were they to be born in richer homes, what then?

By: Steve Shinners

Steve Shinners — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 14:15:46 +0000

Fabulous poetry, I’m glad I read Rosenberg’s two on here. I shall read more..

By: Geoff Stocker

Geoff Stocker — Wed, 09 May 2018 17:30:01 +0000

This has brought memories back for me l use attend classes at Sir John Cass College opposite Whitechapel Gallery learning engraving this was back in the sixties and had interest in WW1 poets.So l was very pleased to know his life is still remembered. Another loose connection I have is my wedding anniversary is the 4th April and my wife’s family are from the Ukraine.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 22:09:17 +0000

I feel so ashamed when I read of such prejudices, as existed 100 years ago, and are still with us today. Thank you so much for sharing this interesting man’s life, short as it was.

By: John Barrett

John Barrett — Thu, 05 Apr 2018 07:21:32 +0000

I must remember Isaac Rosenberg a fellow poet bless him a remarkable poet and life. I recite my war poems on Armistice day in church I know the anguish of putting the words together for this somber occasion. John a poet from Shirehampton Bristol

By: Richard Smith

Richard Smith — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:53:17 +0000

A very moving and thought provoking post today. Thank you.

By: Mari Nicholson

Mari Nicholson — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:46:33 +0000

Thank you for the Rosenberg tribute. He’s one of my favourite war poets, neglected by many (perhaps because he’s a bit more difficult?)

By: Helen Webberley

Helen Webberley — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 10:15:18 +0000

Whenever I have looked at the Whitechapel Boys in general or Isaac Rosenberg specifically, it strikes me what a tragic waste of family closeness, artistic creativity, literary skills and new migrant energy WW1 was. I am very pleased that the blue plaque marks the Whitechapel Gallery/Library where Isaac studied as a youngster. But I wonder how many people will know of Rosenberg’s poetry and art works since he died on the battle fields, before he had a career.

My grandfather was born into a Lithuanian family and raised in the Ukraine. Born a few years after Rosenberg, my grandfather became a Russian-Ukrainian-Polish-English translator in the army and lost a kidney during WW1. But he survived the war; Rosenberg did not. I have raised the similarities in their lives because the army portrait of Isaac Rosenberg (Imperial War Museum) looks EXACTLY like my beloved zeida.

By: Hanna Singer

Hanna Singer — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 09:04:40 +0000

In the introduction to his verse anthology, ‘Along the Years’, Joseph Leftwich relates how his poem, ‘Killed in Action’ (1918), written in tribute to Isaac Rosenberg, through a publisher’s error was wrongly attributed to Rosenberg himself when it was first published in the magazine, ‘Colour’ and subsequently appeared in a 1922 edition of Rosenberg’s poems. He goes on to say that David Bomberg, another friend, remarked that “It is obviously the work of an entirely different mind” and Israel Zangwill wrote to say that he ‘ought to feel flattered’!

Joseph Leftwich’s daughter, Joan, was one of my closest friends until her death in 2003. I regularly attended the Saturday afternoon ‘at-homes’ that her parents held where I met and listened to the remeniscences of their East End cultural circle.

By: Steve Hanscomb

Steve Hanscomb — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 08:44:19 +0000

I didn’t know his writing, but am glad I do now. People can be so cruel in a supposedly civilised land. When I read the jingoistic hate in some newspapers I truly wonder if much has changed. I just hope that there are enough good hearts in the world to keep us afloat. Great article.