Vergissmeinnicht

Question 1

Recall stanza 1 and stanza 2 of Vergissmeinnicht

Answer 1

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.

Question 2

Recall stanza 2 of Vergissmeinnicht

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Recall stanza 3 of Vergissmeinnicht

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

Recall stanza 4 of Vergissmeinnicht

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Recall stanza 5 of Vergissmeinnicht

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Describe the structure of the poem

Answer 6

• six stanzas of quatrains

- irregular rhyme scheme

Question 7

What is the tone like in the poem?

Answer 7

dull, sombre, dark

Question 8

an uneven feel is created right at the start of the poem through the use of…

Answer 8

• the alliteration of the ‘s’ sound

- not having ‘gone’ and ‘sun’ rhyme

Question 9

What does the simile ‘like the entry of a demon’ show?

Answer 9

The harsh and diabolic effects of war

Question 10

What line tells us that the picture in the poem had been dishonoured?

Answer 10

‘the dishonoured picture of his girl’

Question 11

How do we know that the soldier had been disrespected?

Answer 11

‘swart flies’ move around his dead, lifeless body