Remains

Question 1

What perspective is remains told from?

Answer 1

a soilders perspective, most likely guardsmans tromans, very chilling

Question 2

How is the title polysemous?

Answer 2

physical remains and remains of a memory, linking the overarching theme of PTSD and that the effects of war transcend physical violence

Question 3

What does the casual opening ‘on another occasion’ imply?

Answer 3

This is one of a number of events, this is reinforced through the colloquial language
‘tackle’ - childlike, football, euphemism
‘legs it’ -slang, colloquial expression, lacks
the vocabulary to explain whats happened
‘tosses’-dehumanisation, the looter is just rubbish

Question 4

‘guts’ and ‘carted’?

Answer 4

relation to the death of the civilians suspected of looting, exposing the casual attitude to the loss of life in war

Question 5

What does the somewhat oxymoron ‘probably armed, possibly not’ show?

Answer 5

The soilder is beginning to regret their decisions, certainity dwindles between a few words. softens the harship of reality

Question 6

What does the polysyndeton of ‘myself and somebody else and somebody else’ show?

Answer 6

Its an attempt to absolve the soldier of blame, sharing the guilt as it was team orders

Question 7

What does the caesura ‘end of story, expect not really’ show?

Answer 7

volta in the poem, come to understand the mental impact the event has had on the man

Question 8

Why is life further reduced to a ‘blood-shadow’?

Answer 8

he wishes he could ‘flush out’, but the inescapability of the memory is shown through the verb ‘bursts’

Question 9

What does the poems conclusive colloquial line show?

Answer 9

‘his bloody life in my bloody hand’- the mental guilt and tourment of the solider

Question 10

What is remains shift in structure/ lay out?

Answer 10

ends with a couplet forcing the reader to reflect on how awful and dyer his situation is at the end.