Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Douglas - Bernice's Post

Three weeks gone and the combatants gone
returning over the nightmare ground
we found the place again, and found
the soldier sprawling in the sun.


The frowning barrel of his gun
overshadowing. As we came on
that day, he hit my tank with one
like the entry of a demon.


Look. Here in the gunpit spoil
the dishonoured picture of his girl
who has put: Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht
in a copybook gothic script.


We see him almost with content,
abased, and seeming to have paid
and mocked at by his own equipment
that's hard and good when he's decayed.


But she would weep to see today
how on his skin the swart flies move;
the dust upon the paper eye
and the burst stomach like a cave.


For here the lover and killer are mingled
who had one body and one heart.
And death who had the soldier singled
has done the lover mortal hurt.

Level/ Stream: Sec2 Express

Objective:  Students are to identify the imagery used and describe how the writer’s portrayal of war is depicted through them.

First, I would let the students run through the poem on their own before playing the reading by the poet (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6b3a8_keith-douglas-vergissmeinnicht-forg_music) himself before checking their answers for question one to see if they have gotten the correct reading of it.

1. What is this poem about?

This question aims to see how well students have understood the poem on the surface level:

Students are to briefly describe what they think the poem is about – the persona is a soldier who survived the war and has returned to the battlefield. He sees an enemy soldier dead and the objects found with him; a photo of his lover together with her name and a forget-me-not flower. The persona then describes the state of the corpse which is rather grotesque

2. Pick out evidence from the poem for the following questions:

- How is the dead soldier being described?

- What is being brought into the poem that seems to be not related to war?

3. What do you think the poet is trying to imply when he contrasts these imagery?

This question aims to guide students to see how the poet enables the reader to see war through a more micro view in contrast to how it is usually depicted through the macro lens - an affair that involves politics, killings and armies of soldier.

In contrasting the images, the students should be able to come up with ideas that war is not just about the soldiers, but about those they have left behind and the futures that have died along with them. By using answers in the second question, I would also guide students to see the connotations that come with the imagery and from here, lead them to uncover the underlying meaning of the poem.

4. Why do you think this poem is titled Vergissmeinnicht? Use the following questions as guidelines to answering qn 4)

-          How is the term used in the poem?

-          Is the poem simply about war? What else is it about?