Remains

Question 1

‘Probably armed, possibly not.’

Answer 1

-Element of unsureness of whether they are or aren’t armed, nothing is certain.
-This symbolises that war isn’t definite and that the soldiers have limited time to make life-altering decisions that can permanently scar them.
-Caesura reinforces uncertainty.
-‘probably, possibly’ modal verbs.

Question 2

‘A dozen times.’

Answer 2

-‘dozen’ implies they are making sure the looter is died and or severely injured - they don’t know when to stop.
-lack of self control as a soldier.
-shows brutality/violent imagery - this imagery is normal to them (PTSD)

Question 3

Form of Remains

Answer 3

First seven stanzas are unrhymed but are quatrains (order and regularity); last stanza contains a rhyming couplet which should signify resolution, but nothing is resolved.

Question 4

Context of Remains

Answer 4

-Speaker isn’t identified; Armitage wanted this poem to be applied to the general population as a way of spreading the truth about modern warfare and DE glorifying it.
-PTSD never has a simple resolution; it haunts and it scars.
-Moral ambiguity.