Remains

Question 1

What effect does the first line have?

Answer 1

“On another occasion we got sent out”. This creates a causal atmosphere that is more in line with a typical conversation than what we will later learn about his experience. The use of “another” makes this seem like a normal and typical thing that has happened before.

Question 2

Probably ____ possibly ____

Answer 2

Probably armed, possibly not

Question 3

What effect does “probably armed, possibly not” have

Answer 3

This sets up how the soldier did not know that this man was a threat. This can be used in conjunction with “three of a kind all letting fly” to demonstrate the way that war effects ideas about war and conflict, the soldiers killed this man, all at once and all together, despite not even knowing the threat. This also sets up the soldiers guilt due to that.

Question 4

Structure.

Answer 4

This poem transitions from a story about war, to the effects of war after the 4/8 mark. “End of story, except not really”

Question 5

What effect does “He’s there on the ground, sort of inside out” have?

Answer 5

This is extremely colloquial, such violent imagery used in such a casual way. This helps to convey how soldiers are just normal people. This colloquial style can be seen as a soldier trying to hold back how this violence has affected him.

Question 6

His blood _____

Answer 6

Shadow stays on the street

Question 7

Who wrote the poem?

Answer 7

Simon armitage

Question 8

Which stanza portrays the way that warfare has dug into the soldiers mind.

Answer 8

But I blink
and he bursts again through the doors of the bank.
Sleep, and he’s probably armed, possibly not.
Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds.
And the drink and drugs won’t flush him out -

Question 9

How is the structure used?

Answer 9

The start of remains has a contrast between what is being described and how the soldier conveys himself, but slowly as the soldier recounts this, he begins to take in what he has seen. He explains the story before explaining the searing effect that it has had on his mind. The story takes place for 4 stanzas, the aftermath for 1, and the mental scarring for 3. It is formed in the same way that the mind may construct trauma. Enjambment is used for flow. There is no stanza on which there no transitionary Enjambment.

Question 10

But near to the knuckle, here and now
His ____

Answer 10

Bloody life in my bloody hands.
The soldier cannot tell whose blood this is.