remains Flashcards
what is the poem about
a soldier who is haunted by his involvement in a shooting of a bank looter. It also explores the repercussions of war for individuals who come out of conflict zones and raises awareness of conditions such as PTSD
context on author
His poetry is accessible as he often focuses on relatable situations and uses accessible language combined with complex structures to explore themes. He has worked in a number of occupations and his poetry often relates back to his Yorkshire heritage
significance of the time that it was written
Written for “The Not Dead” (2007) a Channel 4 documentary about the impact of war on soldiers returning home=raise awareness about PTSD
Armitage later released a poetry collection of the same name featuring the poems from the series. The collection was based on Guardsman Tromans who fought in Iraq in 2003 and suffered from PTSD as a result of their service. At this time the Iraq war was condemned as unnecessary, and potentially due to US oil greed. As a result of these more modern conflicts the public and military started to recognise PTSD, and Armitage’s poem helped raise awareness and incite sympathy
structure
opening
The poem opens In media res (mid action) which serves to confuse the reader as they initially don’t know what’s going on. This mirrors the confusion of the soldiers who are not emotionally prepared for what will come next once leaving a war zone. This could be Armitage making a societal comment in suggesting that soldiers are launched into situations they don’t fully understand. It also suggests lack of compassion the military has for the individuals they are risking in strategic situations - hence, he was “possibly not” armed. By opening in media res, the poem also reflects the chaos of war and how unpredictable it is.
ending
At the end of the poem, the structure of the stanza length breaks down: the final stanza is only two lines, whereas the rest of the stanzas in the poem are four lines. This breakdown in structure could mirror the breakdown of soldiers during war. It could also suggest that this is the stanza in which the speaker has truly broken. The ending reveals the source of his internal chaos as being his guilt, which brings chaos and disorder to his life as it brings disorder to the structure. By using the adjective “bloody” in the line “his bloody life in my bloody hands”, Armi
main idea 1
soldiers used as tools of war
‘ myself and somebody else and somebody else are all of the same mind ‘
Soldiers are used as tools of war, which leads to war causing a soldier to lose their individuality and humanity. For example, the phrases “three of a kind” and “are all of the same mind” show that war has made all the soldiers trained to think the same way, suggesting they must suspect everyone of being an enemy and fire. War breeds a certain kind of person and changes them all into more aggressive and distrusting people who just have to follow orders [“we get sent out”] without question.
main idea 2
ptsd fear
‘probably armed, possibly not’
‘end of the story, except not really’
The poem explores the idea that memory is not reliable and can be corrupted by trauma; this is observed from the speaker’s shift over the course of the narrative from deflecting blame to feeling entirely to blame. It also investigates how PTSD can isolate you and make you feel entirely alone, and how it will change how you view events due to the intensified guilt from going over and over and event in your head.
The speaker mentions the looter he killed: “probably armed, possibly not”, which suggests there’s a slight chance he could have been innocent and not a threat. “Probably” comes first because this is what he wants to believe as it provides justification. There is clear anaphora of this phrase later in the poem, to show how he is focused on the possibility of the killing being unjustified, and how he feels guilty about it and regrets killing the looter
colloqial= desensitisation, familiarity, lack of emotion
main idea 3
violence
graphic imagery
‘sort of inside out’
‘tosses his guts back into his body’
‘it rips through his life’
‘tosses his guts back into his body’
tosses= unbothered, devaluing human life
colloqial language
‘it rips through his life’ = rips = aggression, violent imagery, abrupt ending of a persons life
