A New Way of Seeing: Distance and Traumatic Memory in the Poetry of World War II

A New Way of Seeing considers the poetry of five writers―Louis Simpson, Keith Douglas, Richard Hugo, Howard Nemerov, and Randall Jarrell―whose work draws on their activities as soldiers in World War II. Basing his examination on extensive primary-source research, Michael Sarnowski identifies distance, both literal and figurative, and traumatic memory as two interconnected elements of how these poets internalized the war and made sense of the events they witnessed.

The book is structured on a gradient related to each poet’s proximity to combat, as the chapters in turn focus on an infantryman (Simpson), a tank commander (Douglas), a bombardier (Hugo), a pilot (Nemerov), and a stateside flight instructor (Jarrell). Sarnowski relies on a wealth of archival material overlooked by previous scholarship, including poem drafts, correspondence, flight logs, and personal belongings. The conclusion revisits notions of legacy and representation by assessing factors that contributed to the early labeling of World War II soldiers as a “Silent Generation,” in contrast to the outpouring of poetry published during and following the First World War.

By exploring how poets processed their wartime experiences, A New Way of Seeing offers a stark reminder of why it remains vital to recognize the physical, mental, and psychological consequences endured by veterans.