Our fathers felt these things before -- The wartime poetry of Wilfred Owen and Keith Douglas

This thesis examines the wartime poetry of two British writers, Wilfred Owen and Keith Douglas. Owen served in the First World War and Douglas in the Second, and their works have come to speak for two generations of young men.;One of the virtues of a liberal arts curriculum is that it allows its students the freedom to intertwine various strands of scholarship in the approach of a topic. This thesis stands as an example of that analytical multiplicity and incorporates not only literary analysis, but also political, social, biographical, and historical material as well. These areas provide the groundwork for the poetic analysis presented in this thesis, giving the work of Owen and Douglas context both in their own time and in ours. Another vital aspect of war writing, and of poetry in particularly, that is discussed in this piece is that of the impact of traumatic experience upon the wartime writer. The scars of war that cause the most damage are often latent - mental, emotional, or spiritual scars that take time to bear their painful fruit. Today, post-traumatic stress disorder is often approached through creative enterprises like poetry. The discussion of latent trauma in this thesis seeks to assert both the limitations and merits of post-traumatic healing through creative expression, as well as examine the presence of trauma in the war poetry of Owen and Douglas.;Lastly, this thesis addresses the disparity that exists in public familiarity with Owen's work when compared to Douglas's. The calculated emotion of Douglas's work forces the reader to confront the reality of combat far more than with Owen's work. Addressing this disparity in attention is vital, particularly in light of contemporary and future wars and the writing emerging from those conflicts. Our contemporary war poets must be taken seriously, and this can only be done once proper acknowledgement and context has been given to the work of those who have come before. This thesis aims, in some small part, to provide that.