Death among love

World War II is the events that no one can forget because it

has created many heroes and deaths. During World War II over 60

million people died. Keith Douglas was the soldier during World War

II. He is the one who experience the war and express war scene to

the World by writing poem. He is one of the greatest English war

poetry during period of World War II. Keith Douglas demonstrates

love, physical and emotional impact in a battlefield by using

explanation of moods and symbols based on Keith Douglas life

during

World War II.

Keith Douglas wants the reader to understand the physical

impact of war and death in the battlefield. How To Kill and

Vergissmeinnicht are two poems that he wrote during World War II

and both of them are two of the greatest poems in his life. Douglas

point is to pull the reader mind into the battlefield and convince

them to follow him by providing the death scene. While reading the

reader will feel that they are in World War II and feel the impact

through the explanation of background and environment. The

frowning barrel of his gun overshadowing (Hulse, M. & Rae, S.,

2012, p.3) this is the part of Vergissmeinnicht that explain the death

scene. In the reader mind the picture of enemy pointing the gun
toward will created. While the reader read this line they will feel the

nearly death moment and feel that they are in the war. Death is not

the only a physical impact. Many soldiers can survive from war, but

they have to sacrifice their organ such as arms, legs, or their

entrails. Those are the common things that happen in battlefield.

Keith Douglas also presents the scene that other people are going to

die too.

How To Kill is the poems that he wrote during World War II.

According to How To Kill Now in my dial of glass appears the soldier

who is going to die. He shows that the people in battlefield have to

experience death everyday and see it as a normal thing that

happen. He also extend the moment of death by adding the next

line, which is He smiles, and moves about in ways. Keith Douglas

emphasizes that even the nearly death person, that person also

agree to the death and see it as neutral. As a result, he uses the

dialogue and language to describe physical impact efficiency in a

way that creates a sense of understanding how people feel in World

War II. Douglas point is tries to tell that in the battlefield everyone

have to prepare themselves for death, which can be anytime, any

place or anyhow.

People have to survive under the pressure everyday; they

have to see death and suffered from disease or symptoms. War

doesnt create only the physical impact to people; it also creates

emotional impact to the people in battlefield. The purpose of

Douglas poems is to share what he experienced during World War II,

sadness and mental diseases are the things that he has suffer. Many

soldier have to suffer the disability situation from depression and

posttraumatic disorder. Post-traumatic disorder or PTSD is the

disease that created from accumulation of stress by experiencing

terrify or terrible event. I am amused / to see the centre of love

diffused / and the wave of love travel into vacancy (Hulse, M. &

Rae, S., 2012, p.307). The quote shows that many soldier have to

end up with stress and sadness from the death in the battlefield.

During World War II many soldiers died from mental problem, which

causes from emotional impact that war created. War doesnt affect

only the soldier; it also causes the impact to soldier family, many

soldier do not have the chance to go back home.

Things in battlefield in war have been use to be symbols in

poems to represent love and death. Keith Douglas includes many

symbols in his poems. For instance, Vergissmeinnicht it is the

German word mean forget me not; it is the flower that represent

true love. Many wives have waited their husband to come back from

the war, but he never going to come back. Forget me not is the

symbol that Keith Douglas use to represent the love of soldier. On

the other hand, there is a symbol that demonstrates death is his

poem. In How To Kill, Keith Douglas has mentioned to mosquito,

which is an insect. Mosquito is the name of night-fighter and light-

bomber airplanes; it is the airplane that use in World War II.

Mosquito has been use in many missions such as Berlin raid and

Pathfinder operation, both missions killed many people. Therefore,

Mosquito can represent the death of people as an insect that spread

a terrible disease or Aircraft fighter. As a result, Keith Douglas can

use things around him as a symbol that illustrates death and love

effectively.

In conclusion, love, physical and emotional impact have been

express through poems of Keith Douglas. Moods and symbol are the

main devices that explain the moods of World War II. His idea is to

explain the things that happen in his life during he was a soldier.

However, he can explain only thing that happen during Word War II.

He died in June 9, 1944 or three days after D-day and before World

War II end one year. He see only people killing each other, he never

see the peace of the World.

 Reference

Hulse, M. & Rae, S. (Eds.). (2012). The 20th century in poetry. New

York, NY

Pegasus Books.