“Vergissmeinnicht” has a sombre and bitter tone. Douglas is expressing his sadness at the waste of war and his anger at the death it causes. He reflects on how they had killed an enemy who had attacked them, but instead of feeling victorious, he feels “almost content”. He realises when looking at the dead soldier and the picture of the girl who loved him, that he was not just an enemy soldier, he was also a person like himself, who loved and was loved. Because of the war not only the soldier but the person was dead. This is encapsulated in the final two lines which seems to describe the very painful paradox of war:
“And death who had the soldier singled
has done the lover mortal hurt.”
The tone of “How Sleep the Brave” differs to “Vergissmeinnicht” in that there is no bitterness or anger; I feel there is a mixture of sadness and respect. Honouring and remembering the sacrifice of the “brave". The poem also suggests a wish for those killed to “rest” peacefully. Both poems share a common thread: a sadness at the loss of life that war creates; they are both as relevant today as when they were written.
“Vergissmeinnicht” is an elegiac poem composed of six quatrains, written in free verse. There is no regularity of rhythm or metre throughout the poem: some lines are iambic tetrameter such as “the soldier sprawling in the sun” and “but she would weep to see today”, other lines have different stresses. The different stresses in each line and the use of rhyme, assists the meaning of the poem. For example, in the first stanza we have a rhyming couplet “ground” and “found” and the iambic rhyming couplet created by the last line of the first stanza and the first line of the second stanza:
“the soldier sprawling in the sun.
The frowning barrel of his gun.”
The regularity of the metre in this part of the poem and the rhyming line endings create a sense of ease and makes the poem flow along. This is reinforced by the sibilance and alliteration of ‘s’ sound of soldier, sprawling and sun. This is interrupted harshly by “overshadowing…” on the next line. The word is imposing and assists the reader to imagine the large gun looming over the soldier’s body.
Douglas also uses ABAB rhyming to reinforce meaning. For example in the fourth stanza the rhyme of “paid” with “decayed” adds emphasis to the word decayed forcing the reader to dwell on the thought of the soldier’s rotting corpse. This device is also used in the last stanza in “mingled” “heart” “singled” “hurt”. I feel that this effectively ties the stanza together to form a solid and lasting final statement.
The structure of “How Sleep the Brave” is very different. It is composed of two sestet stanzas of rhyming iambic tetrameter couplets. The poem has a lyrical and musical quality which could lend itself to be categorised as an Ode. You can very much imagine it being sung as a hymn at a remembrance service. There is also something very allegorical about the poem; Collins does not actually state his meaning, the reader must decide what is meant by the personification of Spring, Fancy, Honour and Freedom.
The imagery in “Vergissmeinnicht” is visual and is almost photographic in nature. We are forced by the imperative “Look.” To visualise in our minds eye the picture of Steffi amongst the “gunpit spoil” and we can imagine her handwritten message of “Vergissmeinnicht” in her “copybook gothic script” This image is driven home by the way in which each word in “copybook gothic script” must be pronounced, it is not a sentence which rolls off the tongue – you are almost forced to linger over each word, adding to the visual picture. Once again we are encouraged to visualise what the poet is saying when he tells us “We see him” and that Steffi “would weep to see”. We are then given some very strong visual images:
“How on his skin the swart flies move;
the dust upon the paper eye
and the burst stomach like a cave”
The repulsive image of the flies swarming on the soldier’s skin is reinforced by the sibilance of the ‘s’ sound. The image of the decaying soldiers lifeless eyes covered in dust, is accentuated by the shortness of that line in comparison to the others. The simile of “The burst stomach like a cave” draws to mind the horrific nature of the soldier’s injury and creates a very strong visual image of a huge, deep, gaping hole in the soldier’s stomach. This graphic detail and the way in which we are forced to imagine the scene suggest the poet’s anger. He wants us to picture what it is like to be on the front line and what the result of war is.
In “How Sleep the Brave”, the imagery is not so pictorial but is created through personification. “Spring” is given the human quality of having “fingers cold” and we are told that Spring will come to the battlefield to decorate “Their hallow’d mould” This creates the image of the battlefield where the dead lie being covered in grass and beautiful flowers, this is reinforced by;
“She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.”
You can imagine that the grave will be as beautiful a place you have ever cared to walk. This creates a feeling of peace, which is reinforced by “rest” in the first line. The device of personification is continued in the second stanza. Honour is described “a pilgrim grey” which assists us to imagine that honour visits the place where they lie to bless their resting place. This serves to reinforce the idea that the place they lie is like a graveyard. The “hallow’d mould” or holy grave, the idea of a funeral bell (“knell”), songs of mourning (“dirge”) being sung and the blessed “turf” all evoke the feeling of a grave yard. This seems to be a comforting thought that the “brave” are resting in a beautiful place where, although they are far from home and there are no loved ones to tend to their graves or sing their songs of mourning, that “Spring” tends their graves, “fairy hands” ring their funeral bell, “forms unseen” sing for them, “Honour” visits them and blesses their graves, and “Freedom” cries for them. It is as if they are given a funeral.
There are many differences between the “Vergissmeinnicht” and “How Sleep the Brave”. The peots have different attitudes therefore; there is a marked difference in tone. There is a vast difference in the structure and the style of poetry; “How Sleep the Brave” has a very regular metrical beat and a consistent rhyme scheme whereas “Vergissmeinnicht” has a very irregular, disjointed metre and a varying use of rhyme. “How Sleep the Brave” makes use of the device of personification whereas “Vergissmeinnicht” exploits strong visual imagery. However, there are some similarities in subject, both poets express the sadness of the wastage of life that a war creates and both poems have a timeless relevance in that no matter how much time goes by, there will still be loss in war and that the brave and the war dead will always be remembered. Either of the poems could have relevance to a reader involved in war, past, present or future.
