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Gerard O'Brien
Tutor: Dr. James Ward
Literature Formative Assessment One
Vergissmeinnicht
In his poem, Vergissmeinnicht, Keith Douglas explores a number of themes,
not least the horrors of war and the duality of man. Drawing on his
experience during the Allied campaign in Africa, Douglas creates a post-battle
scene, the Allied forces crossing terrain they have taken three weeks
previously.
The language used throughout is evocative and dramatic, giving the reader a
feeling for the harsh and unforgiving desert, and the war raging across it.
“Returning over the nightmare ground,” the speaker comes upon the remains
of an enemy soldier killed during the conflict. The language relating to the
battle and its staging ground in stanzas one and two is foreboding and hellish,
the landscape being compared to that of a bad dream, the “frowning” gun
“overshadowing” the corpse of the gunner. The hit on the speaker’s tank is
described as “the entry of a demon”, giving us a sense of the fear and
suffering which are part and parcel of warfare.
The first-person perspective involves us with the speaker’s own feelings and
allows us to experience the trials of war almost first hand. We learn how the
discovery of the enemy soldier’s corpse, along with a forget-me-not of his
lover, causes the speaker to reflect on the contrasting feelings his adversary’s
death will have caused.
Gerard O'Brien
Tutor: Dr. James Ward
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The language and imagery in stanzas four and five serve to highlight this dual
nature of humanity. The savage nature of man is hinted at in verse four, the
speaker delighting in his deceased foe’s being “abased” and “mocked at by
his own equipment”. This is deftly contrasted by the following verse’s
mournful and terrible description of the corpse; a lover would “weep to see,”
the wreck and ruin of decay, returning to the deceased a sense of humanity
denied him by his victorious foe.
The concluding verse of the poem simply and effectively states the dual
nature of man explored throughout; “For here the lover and killer are mingled /
who had one body and one heart.” Both the base, savage being, and the
higher, rational being are inextricably linked – although seemingly
diametrically opposite, they inhabit the same fragile shell.
The overall tone of the poem is brooding and melancholy, although there is a
hint of triumph in the speaker’s voice as he recounts his deeds in battle and
as he observes his fallen adversary. This serves to highlight the trials and
triumphs of war – even in victory the mood is dark and sombre and the
consolation taken in the defeat of a foe is almost grotesque; it seems
unnatural for a poet to revel in such wanton destruction and the indignity
suffered by those fallen and left to rot.
Gerard O'Brien
Tutor: Dr. James Ward
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The form of the poem also serves to complement the poet’s choice of
language, reinforcing the mood and drawing the reader’s attention to lines and
stanzas of particular importance.
At first glance, the poem looks rigidly structured, divided into six stanzas of
four lines, but on closer inspection we see that behind this illusion of order
there is uncertainty and a lack of form. The majority of the lines in the poem
are iambic tetrameter, the regular, even beat perhaps suggestive of the
rhythm of the soldiers’ trek through the desert. This structure varies, however,
a substantial number of the lines have an uneven number of stresses, ranging
from only seven in the line “Look. Here in the gunpit spoil” in the third stanza,
to eleven in the line “For here the lover and killer are mingled” in the sixth.
These variances serve two purposes; firstly, the irregularity of rhythm
suggests the stumbling of the wearied soldiers as they march; secondly, the
sudden changes in pace force the reader to absorb the lines fully.
Another feature of the poem with the ghost of order is the rhyming structure.
The speaker drifts in and out of rhyming structures, with stanzas one and five
completely lacking one. Even in those stanzas where a structure is evident,
the rhymes to be found are often tenuous, half-rhymes, such as one / demon,
spoil / girl, Vergissmeinnicht / script. This adds to the feeling of the poem
being recited by a weary, confused, perhaps shell-shocked soldier. As with
the other devices used by the poet, the rhyme is used to sharpen focus on the
stanzas in which it is present. The rhyming is most lucid in the final verse,
sharpening the conclusion reached by the speaker that those who die are
Gerard O'Brien
Tutor: Dr. James Ward
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both killers and men, it is impossible to destroy one without destroying the
other.
Douglas’ sparing use of pause provides a similar purpose to the line structure,
the number of run-on lines helping to create a sense of ceaseless movement,
adding to the feel of a marching formation of troops. On the rare occasions a
pause is used before the end of a stanza, we are forced to stop and take in
what is being said. This is used particularly well in the second stanza, when
the speaker is recalling the events of the battle waged a fortnight before – he
is hesitant, perhaps traumatized by the events he played a part in. The first
line in the third stanza, “Look. Here in the gunpit spoil”, is perhaps one of the
most effective in the poem, as it utilises both a pause and a variance in line
length, demanding rather than asking the reader to look at what the speaker is
showing.
To conclude, I feel that Keith Douglas’ use of language and poetic form helps
create a moving and meaningful piece. The use of these technical features is
integral to the interpretation of the poem as, without them, Vergissmeinnicht
would simply read like a factual account of the traversing of a post-battle
landscape by a contingent of troops. However, using the techniques
described, Douglas gives a chilling account of the horrors of war, and
hauntingly displays the dichotomy of human nature.