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GCSE > ENGLIT POETRY the manhunt > Flashcards

ENGLIT POETRY the manhunt Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the manhunt about?

A
  • the wife of a soldier gets to know her husband again after he has returned home from war
  • her husband has physical scars from injuries he sustained in the war
  • he also has psychological scars as a result of his traumatic experiences, poem progresses from describing to his physical scars to his mental scars and how they are affecting him
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2
Q

How does the title have a double meaning?

A
  • wife is looking for the emotional intimacy that she had with her husband
  • implies a police search for a criminal, however the real ‘criminal’ is the effects of war that have been left behind on the soldier
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3
Q

How is the poem structured?

A
  • different injuries are introduced in different couplets, gradually moving further into the soldier’s body which allows the reader to follow the same slow process that his wife does
  • for each stanza the first line is more descriptive whereas the second stanza touches on the more psychological impacts
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4
Q

What is the form of the poem?

A
  • couplet-long stanzas have lines of varying length
  • initially the stanzas rhyme, but the rhymes break down making the poem feel disjointed and reflecting the theme of brokenness
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5
Q

How is the theme of patience shown in the poem?

A
  • it takes the whole poem for her to “come close” to her husband, it’s unclear how much more progress she will be able to make in the future
  • shows how patient both the soldier and the wife will need to be in order for a full recovery
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6
Q

What is significant about “after the first phase/after passionate nights and intimate days”?

A
  • returned from a military posting in which he may have been affected
  • anaphora of “after” gives emphasis to the suggestion that something negative will be revealed
  • starts with an adverbial phrase in anticipation of the main clause, builds suspense as reader may soon realise that it isn’t a traditional love poem and the couple’s happiness will be undermined by something
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7
Q

What is significant about the repetition of “only then” at the start of 4 stanzas throughout the poem?

A

Armitage again uses anaphora to imply that the couple will need to take small steps to ensure recovery, repetition increases build-up and suspense

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8
Q

What is significant about “would he let me trace”?

A
  • “trace” suggests intimacy of touch which troubled people often find difficult and intrusive
  • narrator is trying to break the emotional distance that has formed between them
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9
Q

What is significant about “frozen river”?

A
  • metaphor for flow of loving feelings but they have now become hardened like ice
  • could represent his sadness as his tears are unable to flow, everything must thaw eventually so his tears will fall and will emotionally connect with his wife
  • “frozen” implies coldness, much like the cold, emotionless state that he’s in
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10
Q

What is significant about “would he let me trace/ran through his face”?

A
  • full rhymes sound positive as if the couple are making progress
  • soldier’s “face” has lost expression, maybe out of fear or out of memories that he’s trying to mask, could also refer to a scar, clearly physically and psychologically damaged
  • “face” is first part of lexical field of body parts which have all sustained physical damage
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11
Q

What is significant about “blown jaw”?

A

shows the physical damage he has sustained, but has also suffered psychologically, he finds it difficult to talk about his experiences in war

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12
Q

What is significant about “explore/jaw”?

A
  • half-rhymes, technique used several times throughout
  • has an unsettling effect as the poem is less predictable which reflects the experiences that the wife must go through in order to find her husband again
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13
Q

What is significant about “and handle and hold”?

A
  • uses enjambment going into this verse which represents the wife’s ongoing commitment to commit to her husband, even if her progress is slow
  • sounds like he needs caring, almost like a child
  • alliterative “h” sounds sound like gasps and drawn-in breaths that are desperate not to damage his already ravaged body
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14
Q

What is significant about “and handle and hold/and mind and attend/and finger and thumb”?

A
  • proliferation of different verbs convey the woman’s struggle
  • she takes an active part in trying to help her husband
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15
Q

What is significant about “damaged, porcelain/fractured rudder”?

A
  • images of soldier’s damaged body highlights how fragile he is
  • the fact parts of his body are being compared into a series of separate, broken objects suggests that war dehumanises people
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16
Q

What is significant about “parachute silk of his punctured lung”?

A
  • repeating “p” sound is alliterative and plosive to reinforce the idea of violent injury
  • a damaged parachute is useless, similarly the soldier also feels useless as he tries to find a new life in the world outside of war
  • semantic field of delicacy is associated with soldier’s state of mind, once tough soldier who was part of masculine culture is now vulnerable and emasculated and depends on his partner to care for him
17
Q

What is significant about “fractured rudder”?

A
  • suggests he can’t cope and the lover has to steer him, as if she were steering a boat
  • effects of war has damaged and debilitated him
18
Q

What is significant about “bind the struts”?

A

-figurative language suggests she’s patching him up, as if she’s tying his broken ribs back together to make him strong again

19
Q

What is significant about “and feel the hurt/of his grazed heart”?

A
  • “grazed” has a double meaning, the bullet only grazed his heart but it left emotional grazes behind
  • long vowels in “hurt”, “grazed” and “heart” give the line a feeling of heaviness
  • shortest stanza in poem, a pivot in the poem that suggests a dramatic emotional climax that will be followed by the process of healing
  • subtle effect which changes the tone of the poem
20
Q

What is significant about “skirting along/only then could I picture the scan”?

A
  • “skirting along” suggests that she is moving alongside with her husband now, rather than trying to investigate deeper inside of him, more light-hearted and feels she’s actually achieving something
  • she is now only coming to terms with the way the bullet has damaged her husband, implies that she only now understands the way it has damaged his emotions
21
Q

What is significant about “the foetus of metal beneath his chest”?

A
  • metaphor comparing the bullet to a foetus emphasises that his experiences are now a part of him, hints that being injured is as life-changing as becoming a parent
  • “foetus” implies the bullet has embedded itself inside of him, restricting the healing process
  • ironic because a foetus marks the start of life and is usually positive, however the bullet which could be metaphorical for the war’s effects end life and is unwanted
22
Q

What is significant about “widened the search/traced the scarring back to its source?”

A
  • source could be referring to “frozen river” mentioned earlier, could also be referring to the “mine” in the next stanza
  • “search” and “source” form a discordant and strained off-rhyme which implies that it’s a difficult time in their relationship
23
Q

What is significant about “unexploded mine/buried deep in his mind”?

A
  • image of a sweating bomb shows the tension and stress his memories have caused
  • may not have dealt with all parts of his experience which is why the mine remains “unexploded”, he is just as likely to “explode” from the mine
  • the lover may need to find the source of his distress, but at the same time if she isn’t careful in her approach then she can make him ‘explode’, shows vulnerability of soldiers
24
Q

What is significant about “every nerve in his body tightened and closed”?

A

uncomfortable image, his nerves are dependent on the “mine not going off, shows that his emotional wellbeing is closely linked to his physical wellbeing

25
Q

What is significant about “tightened and closed./Then, and only then, did I come close”?

A
  • last sentence is the only one that lies on one line, emphasises that the soldier’s psychological sufferings are worse than his physical ones
  • imperfect rhyme creates a muted ending, made progress but can only “come close”
  • in his conclusion, Armitage his statement on how war permanently affects people and their families
  • partial conclusion because the resolution is incomplete, shows she may never truly understand the trauma that her husband has suffered

GCSE (30 decks)

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