Keith Douglas
 

Lately I have been musing on Keith Douglas - not least this poem ... https://www.best-poems.net/keith-douglas/words.html

That poem is not what he is known and (rightly) acclaimed for, I know, but I came across it for the first time recently, and really liked it.

But this is probably better ... https://www.best-poems.net/keith-dou...he-marvel.html

Apologies if I am preaching to the already converted. But imagine, if he'd survived the war (Normandy, I think), what riches we might have had.

Douglas wrote some remarkable poems in his early teens: 'Mummers' at fourteen, and "that flawless poem of his sixteenth year" (Ted Hughes), 'Encounter with a God'. There are a couple poems of schooldays I like: 'Distraction' and 'On Leaving School'.

Three poems that Clive James picked out in his review: 'Canoe', 'Stars', and 'Absence'.

Faber's Complete Poems includes some alternative versions. An earlier draft of Vergissmeinnicht had this postscript:

Mein Mund ist stumm, aber mein Aug'es spricht
Un was es sagt ist kurz -- Vergissmeinnicht

Steffi

A real quotation from a real photograph?

Thanks for that, Brian. It could be, couldn't it? I like it anyway.

Cheers

David