English Literature - Poems - Vergissmeinnicht - Quotes

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Vergissmeinnicht - Keith Douglas

  • "nightmare ground" - The battlefield bring back horrific memories that keep him awake at night. Shows how the previous battle keeps coming back to him like a reccurring nightmare.
  • "soldier sprawling in the sun" - Use of the verb "sprawling" suggests they were strewn across the battle field without any care or regard.
  • "frowning barrel of his gun" - The personifying verb "frowning" implies reluctant fire. He was no murder or sycopath but a human who was only killing for the sake of the war.
  • "that day" - Very inexplicit, suggesting he does not want to think back upon it.
  • "like the entry of a demon" - Through the use of this simile, the narrator attempts to demonise the enemy to justify their killing.
  • "seeming to have paid" - He has paid the ultimate price for war.
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Vergissmeinnicht - Keith Douglas

  • "mocked at by his own equipment that's hard and good when he's decayed." - His gun mocks him by withstanding the war, while he has passed.
  • "she would weep" - (Referring to his widow) - Makes his death seem more tragic as it humanises him.
  • "on his skin the swart flies move; the dust upon the paper eye and the burst stomach like a cave." - Hard-hitting graphic language is used to help the reader visualise the scene of his dead body, enhancing the horrors of war.
  • "the lover and killer are mingled who had one body and one heart." - States that it is impossible to differentiate between the lover and the killer in the soldier for they are one in the same and that there are still good men behind the soldiers. - (If lover refers to widow...) Suggests that the widow has been equally impacted by the war, conveying the magnitude of it.
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Vergissmeinnicht - Keith Douglas

  • "death who had the soldier singled has done the lover mprtal hurt" - Portrays death as the enemy for the soldiers are only killing out of neccessity. - (If lover refers to the soldier...) Suggests that war does damage to the soldiers' outlook on life. They have been rid of the optimism after the atrocities they have seen. - (If lover refers to the widow...) Shows pity for the soldier's widow.
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