Remains

Question 1

Simon Armitage

Answer 1

is an English poet playwright and novelist. Remains is from his 200 collection, The Not Dead, which looks at the effect of war on ex-soldiers. I’s based on the account of a Brtish solider who served in Iraq.

Question 2

Form

Answer 2

There’s no regular line length or thyme scheme, making it sound like someone telling a story.
The speaker starts with the first person plural (“we”), but changes to first person singular (*I”) and the poem becomes more personal, sounding like a confession. In the final couplet, both lines haved he same metre — this gives a feeling of finality and hints that the guilt will stay with the soldier.

Question 3

Structure

Answer 3

The poem begins as if it’s going to be an amusing anecdote, but it quickly turns into a
graphic description of a man’s death. There is a clear volta (turning point) at the beginning of the fith stanza, where the soldier’s tone, thoughts and emotions are changed by his guilt.

Question 4

Graphic imagery

Answer 4

The man’s death is described in gory detail, with the implication that his “guts”
have spilt out onto the ground. The imagery reminds the reader of the horrors of war, but also shows how desensitised to violence and death the speaker was at the time — they had become part of his everyday life.

Question 5

Colloquial language

Answer 5

first four stanzas have lots of chatty, familiar language, which helps make the poem sound like someone telling a story. However, this language also trivialises the man’s death.

Question 6

Repetition

Answer 6

Words are repeated to reflect the way that the killing is repeated in the speaker’s mind.

Question 7

On another occasion

Answer 7

Sounds like it’s happed before meaning they have gone through it multiple time s

Question 8

Tosses his guts back into his body

Answer 8

Casual actions no respect for the dead man make the body feel like a peice of rubbish