Poetry Criticism | Thomas, Edward - Stephen McKenzie (essay date 1990)

Stephen McKenzie (essay date 1990)

SOURCE: McKenzie, Stephen. “‘Only an Avenue, Dark, Nameless, without End’: Edward Thomas's Road to France.” Critical Survey 2, no. 2 (1990): 160-68.

[In the following essay, the author argues that Thomas's writings during and about the war evince “a profound uncertainty” regarding what it meant to be “English” and what it meant to have any kind of identity during the 1910s. Through providing close readings of poems such as “This Is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong,” “I Never Saw That Land Before,” and others, the author suggests that Thomas's uncertainty is elaborated in his poetry by unresolved investigations into how nationality, language, and patriarchy control an individual's self-expression.]

The issues of Edward Thomas's patriotism and his decisions to enlist and fight for his country remain, despite much critical thought, apparently insoluble unless one is to avoid the...

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