WWII Poem by Keith Douglas Questions
Read the WWII poem below by Keith Douglas. This is one of Douglas’s most celebrated poems. He was killed during the invasion of Normandy on June 9, 1944 at the age of 24, and he is now regarded as one of the most important British poets of the WWII era.
After reading the poem, answer the following questions:
–What links do you see between the WWI poems by Sassoon and Owen that we read earlier this semester and the language and depiction of war created in Douglas’s WWII poem? How might Douglas have been influenced by those poets who came before him?
–Choose at least 1-2 lines that stand out to you as particularly vivid. Give the full quote and include your analysis of the significance of those lines.
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.
