Remains Flashcards
On another occasion we got sent out/ to tackle looters raiding a bank
Opens in Media res which confuses the reader, mirroring the confusion of the soldier who isn’t emotionally prepared for what his role entails.
Their emotional immaturity is also stressed with the verb tackle which is associated with football and shows the young age and naivety of the soldiers who are not yet ready for the magnitude of violence required
Probably armed possibly not
Trying to justify what he has done
Well myself and somebody else and somebody else are all of the same mind, so all three of us open fire
The reader isn’t given specifics of who was there, who did the shooting and who was killed and there is no mention of which war the soldier is in suggesting this trauma can be applied to any soldier
Repetition and polysyndeton shows how it is irrelevant who else was there he is taking responsibility/ the blame whilst also acknowledging that others were effected and the comradeship in war
Repetition also emphasises the force of the group attack. And the unfair power dynamic presents the victim as vulnerable.
Fire has religious imagery associated with hell and suffering. They inflicted pain and punishment onto the looter and war gave them the position to play god- a position no one is emotionally prepared for
I see every round as it rips through his life
Hyperbolic metaphore. Presents life as fragile; like paper
Sort of inside out/ pain itself the image of agony
The switch from colloquial language to emotional language reflects how he is taking ownership of what he did and the impact it had on him and this is emphasise by the use of enjambment
Tosses his guts back into his body
Inhumane, lack of care, treated like an object of low value shows how war causes a devaluation of human life
His blood-shadow stays on the street and out on patrol/ I walk right over it week after week
Use of pronouns emphasises that he doesn’t even know his name, it was a depersonalised action with little motive
Metaphore ‘blood shadow’ death stains a person’s conscience and memory just as it stains a street. Just like a shadow he is followed or haunted by his crimes
Sibilance creates an unsettling tone mirroring his sinister actions; mimics the sound of fear
Alliteration of W
Shows remorse and regret as if his bottom lip is quivering
Repetition also emphasises how he is constantly reminded of the incident and he has no means of escape
Repetition of “possibly armed possibly not”
Fixated in the necessity of his crime and as a result he is punished
Caesura mimics his interrupted sleep and life.
Sand smothered land
The events are effecting him even away from this alien place. And also it is Armitage referring to Guardsman Tromans who fought in Iraq and was the inspiration for this collection of poems
His bloody life in by bloody hands
He is stained with the blood of the looter and he can never have clean hands again