Tim Dayton graduated from Siena College (B.A. 1982), the State University of New York at Albany (M.A. 1984), and Duke University (Ph.D. 1990). He is the author of Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead (2003) and articles on American crime fiction, American poetry, and historical materialist literary theory and criticism. He is Professor of English, Kansas State University. He is currently leading a project to develop a digital archive of American First World War poetry.

'In his latest book, Dayton … looks at the Great War writings of E. E. Cummings, Edith Wharton, Lynn Harold Hough, M. A. DeWolfe, and Alan Seeger through a historical materialist lens. Recommended.' K. B. Hannel, Choice

• 1. America enters the War; 2. American intervention in the First World War: poetry as an ideological form; 3. 'Devotions loyal even to death': Alan Seeger, asceticism, Medievalism, and the martial ideal; 4. 'Dulce et Decorum': Edith Wharton's Great War; 5. Some versions of the epic: World War I and the modern American long poem; 6. 'Wristers Etcetera': Cummings, the Great War, and discursive struggle; Conclusion.

Tim Dayton graduated from Siena College (B.A. 1982), the State University of New York at Albany (M.A. 1984), and Duke University (Ph.D. 1990). He is the author of Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead (2003) and articles on American crime fiction, American poetry, and historical materialist literary theory and criticism. He is Professor of English, Kansas State University. He is currently leading a project to develop a digital archive of American First World War poetry.

'In his latest book, Dayton … looks at the Great War writings of E. E. Cummings, Edith Wharton, Lynn Harold Hough, M. A. DeWolfe, and Alan Seeger through a historical materialist lens. Recommended.' K. B. Hannel, Choice

• 1. America enters the War; 2. American intervention in the First World War: poetry as an ideological form; 3. 'Devotions loyal even to death': Alan Seeger, asceticism, Medievalism, and the martial ideal; 4. 'Dulce et Decorum': Edith Wharton's Great War; 5. Some versions of the epic: World War I and the modern American long poem; 6. 'Wristers Etcetera': Cummings, the Great War, and discursive struggle; Conclusion.

Tim Dayton graduated from Siena College (B.A. 1982), the State University of New York at Albany (M.A. 1984), and Duke University (Ph.D. 1990). He is the author of Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead (2003) and articles on American crime fiction, American poetry, and historical materialist literary theory and criticism. He is Professor of English, Kansas State University. He is currently leading a project to develop a digital archive of American First World War poetry.

'In his latest book, Dayton … looks at the Great War writings of E. E. Cummings, Edith Wharton, Lynn Harold Hough, M. A. DeWolfe, and Alan Seeger through a historical materialist lens. Recommended.' K. B. Hannel, Choice

• 1. America enters the War; 2. American intervention in the First World War: poetry as an ideological form; 3. 'Devotions loyal even to death': Alan Seeger, asceticism, Medievalism, and the martial ideal; 4. 'Dulce et Decorum': Edith Wharton's Great War; 5. Some versions of the epic: World War I and the modern American long poem; 6. 'Wristers Etcetera': Cummings, the Great War, and discursive struggle; Conclusion.