When analyzing the poem Vergissmeinnicht by Keith Douglas it was very difficult, yet deep. When just skimming over the poem you have no idea what the author is talking about. But as you read deeper into the poem, you see that Douglas has a strong point that he is trying to relay.
The style of the poem is very unique. He has no exact rhyme scheme, but you still see the rhyming with in the lines. In the first stanza he uses what you would call ABBA, which means the first line rhymes with the last line, and the second and third rhyme with each other. The next stanza he uses ABAB, which means every other line rhymes. Then in the third stanza he uses AABB, lines one and two rhyme with each other, while lines three and four rhyme with each other. But then in the fourth stanza he returns to ABAB, which is kind of weird. It would have made sense if he would have started over and went with ABBA again, but instead he copied stanza two. This made no sense to me and I couldn't tell if he did this on purpose, or just couldn't find any other way of doing it. The only thing I could think of is that he was trying to say that the unstableness and craziness of this poem, correlates with the unstableness and craziness of war.
The tone of the poem is negative and depressing. It talks about death, the rotting bodies of dead soldiers, and loves that are lost. The setting is on a battlefield that they are returning to after they have already fought and killed enemies.
The poet also conveys his negative and depressing attitude towards war. He is trying to reflect the negative, yet realistic aspects of war to the reader. Douglas then explains in graphic detail the remains of the dead soldier. .
He uses this graphic imagery when writing, "how on his skin the swart flies move; the dust upon the upper eye and burst stomach like a cave." He wants us to see the dead soldier lying on the ground with his insides of his stomach showing.
