Degree Name

MA (Master of Arts)

Program

English

Date of Award

5-2009

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Isabel B. Stanley

Committee Members

Ronald K. Giles, Shawna T. Lichtenwalner

Abstract

Since the First World War ended in 1918 and anthologies began to emerge, limited attention has been paid to the poets of this era. While a few select male poets have achieved canonicity, women war poets of this era have fallen into enigmatic obscurity.

The intention of this paper is to expound, explicate, and expose the difficulties relating to gaining entry into the canon of English literature, especially where the poets of The Great War are concerned. This paper discusses the absence of the most profound and foreshadowing poems written during the war through research of scholarly journals and out-of-print poems. The paper also seeks to prove that the defenses offered up which exclude certain poems in the anthologies have had repercussions extending into the twenty-first century.

Beyond all human imagination, the excluded poetry of The Great War is languishing, wanting, and imploring for exploration and canonicity.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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