This study is the first examination of the corpus of American war poetry as an important sub-genre of American literature. Until this time few critics and scholars have treated war verse as a reflection of a nation's literary and cultural development. By focusing on the poetry of five wars: the Revolution, the Civil War, two World Wars, and the Vietnam Conflict, this dissertation examines the modes and subjects of American poets as they respond to the forces of war and their culture.

In his research, the author discovered that American poets have tended to concentrate on the question of moral justification for war. In instances when the reasons for war have seemed just, poets have assumed a public role as poetic spokesmen. When the justification has not been clear, war verse has been more individual and has expressed the private searching and questioning of the poets.

In addition to examining the American poet's moral search and the resultant role that he adopts, this dissertation also considers the subjects the American poets have been inclined toward in their war poetry. Aside from the war itself, American poets have treated their society's religious, material, and cultural myths that have underlain the motives for war. The nature of the form and meaning of religion, the material development of science, technology, and commerce, and the cultural issues of national maturation and mission are subjects that repeatedly appear in American war verse.

The major importance of this study is that it gives, for the first time, an overview of American war verse spanning the period from the Revolution to the Vietnam Conflict. Many of the poems, particularly those from the Vietnam War, are analyzed for the first time. The author has discovered that the poetry that Americans have written about war and in response to war has special qualities in theme and artistic expression that justify the study of war poetry as a sub-genre. Often a poet, Whitman for example, has been moved by combat to employ verse forms and techniques or to explore themes and subjects that set new directions in his and America's poetry. The issues--moral, social, technological, and cultural--raised by the very presence of war have generated poetry of power and often of uniqueness that deserves further study, of which this thesis is but a beginning.