Remains Flashcards
Brief plot summary
The poem follows a soldier who recalls an incident during war where he and his squad shot and killed a looter. At the time, the act feels routine, but afterward, the soldier is tormented by the memory. Even after returning home, he struggles with PTSD, unable to escape vivid flashbacks of the violent event. His attempts to numb the guilt through substances prove futile, leaving him consumed by remorse and trapped in an unending cycle of trauma.
Context
Part of The Not Dead: A 2008 collection (and documentary) based on interviews with British Iraq war veterans, exposing the psychological aftermath of war.
PTSD: Explores how soldiers carry trauma home, challenging glorified war narratives.
Structure and Form
Dramatic Monologue
First-Person Perspective: Creates intimacy, forcing readers to confront the soldier’s guilt.
Unreliable Narration: The speaker’s fragmented memories (“probably armed, possibly not”) reveal his unstable psyche.
Two-Part Structure
First Half (Action):
Focuses on the past event—the shooting of the looter.
Fast-paced, matter-of-fact tone reflects the soldiers’ desensitization.
Second Half (Aftermath):
Shifts to the present, showing the speaker’s PTSD.
Slower, more fragmented, mirroring his mental distress.
Language
Colloquial & Vague Language
Examples:
“Well, myself and somebody else and somebody else”
“this looter” / “carted off”
Effect:
Reflects the soldiers’ desensitization—violence becomes routine.
Dehumanizes the victim (“this looter”), making it easier to justify killing.
Violent Verbs & Gruesome Imagery
Examples:
“rips through his life” / “torn apart by a dozen rounds”
“tosses his guts back into his body”
Effect:
Forces readers to confront war’s physical horror.
Contrasts with sanitized, glorified war narratives.
Sibilance & Alliteration
Example:
“some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land”
Effect:
Sibilance (“s” sounds) mimics a whisper, suggesting suppressed horror.
Hard “t” sounds (“not left for dead”) sound like gunfire.
“His blood-shadow stays on the street.”
Technique: Metaphor (“blood-shadow” = permanent guilt).
Analysis: The “shadow” suggests an inescapable memory, haunting the soldier everywhere.
“I see every round as it rips through his life.”
Techniques: Violent verb (“rips”), present tense (“see”).
Analysis: The graphic imagery and present tense show how the trauma feels ongoing.
“His bloody life in my bloody hands.”
Techniques: Repetition (“bloody”), symbolism (blood = guilt).
Analysis: The swearword-like “bloody” conveys rage and remorse.May connote guilt from Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
“Sort of inside out… tosses his guts back into his body.”
Technique: Colloquial language (“sort of”), violent imagery.
Analysis: The casual tone underscores how war desensitizes soldiers.
“The drink and drugs won’t flush him out.”
Technique: Metaphor (“flush” = treating memory like waste).
Analysis: Shows futile attempts to numb PTSD, making the trauma feel dirty and invasive.
“Not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land.”
Techniques: Sibilance (“sun-stunned, sand-smothered”), alliteration.
Analysis: The hissing sounds evoke a stifling, hostile environment.
Comparisons
War Photographer (Carol Ann Duffy)
Shared Focus: Psychological trauma post-conflict
Remains: Soldier haunted by killing a looter (“blood-shadow stays”).
War Photographer: Photographer tormented by developing war images (“spools of suffering”).
Key Contrast:
Remains uses visceral, violent language (“rips through his life”); War Photographer is more restrained (“ordinary pain”).
Bayonet Charge (Ted Hughes)
Shared Focus: Dehumanization in battle
Remains: Desensitized language (“somebody else and somebody else”).
Bayonet Charge: Soldier reduced to instinct (“raw-seamed hot khaki”).
Key Contrast:
Bayonet Charge glorifies survival; Remains critiques moral injury.
Poppies (Jane Weir)
Shared Focus: Grief and memory
Remains: Soldier’s flashbacks (“I see every round”).
Poppies: Mother’s mourning (“released a song bird from its cage”).
Key Contrast:
Poppies is elegiac; Remains is raw and accusatory.
Kamikaze
Trauma: Both explore psychological damage—Remains through violent flashbacks, Kamikaze through social rejection.
Moral Conflict: Soldiers/pilots face impossible choices (“probably armed” vs. abandoning duty).
Key Contrast: Kamikaze uses natural imagery (sea, fish) for life; Remains avoids it to emphasize urban brutality.
Compare the ways poets present ideas about guilt in ‘Remains’ and in one other
poem from ‘Power and Conflict’.
- The Nature of Guilt: Direct Action vs. Passive Observation
Both Remains and War Photographer explore guilt, but they differ in their portrayal of responsibility. In Remains, the soldier’s guilt stems from his direct role in killing a looter, emphasized through visceral language like “blood-shadow” and “his bloody life in my bloody hands.” The poem’s raw, confessional tone forces readers to confront the moral weight of violence. In contrast, War Photographer presents guilt as a quieter, more insidious force—the photographer’s pain comes from bearing witness without intervention, as seen in the metaphor of “a hundred agonies in black-and-white.” While the soldier is haunted by what he has done, the photographer is tormented by what he has failed to prevent. Both poems, however, reveal how guilt transcends the moment of action or inaction, lingering as a psychological burden. - Imagery of Violence and Its Aftermath
The poems use stark imagery to depict the lasting impact of war, but with distinct focuses. Remains employs brutal, physical descriptions—”round rips through his life”—to show how violence etches itself into memory. The soldier’s trauma is immediate and sensory, replaying in nightmares. Meanwhile, War Photographer frames violence through the detached lens of a camera, where suffering is distilled into “ordered rows” of photographs. The juxtaposition of “foreign dust” with “rural England” underscores the disconnect between war zones and the safe, oblivious public. While Remains immerses readers in the soldier’s visceral guilt, War Photographer critiques the commodification of suffering, where images become disposable news items rather than catalysts for change. - Structural Techniques: Chaos vs. Control
The poems’ structures mirror their themes of guilt and trauma. Remains uses erratic enjambment and a fragmented narrative—”then I’m home on leave. But I blink”—to reflect the soldier’s fractured psyche and the intrusive nature of his memories. The lack of resolution mirrors his endless cycle of guilt. Conversely, War Photographer adopts a controlled, rhythmic structure (rhyming quatrains) to mimic the photographer’s mechanical process, yet this order is undermined by the unsettling subject matter. The rigid form contrasts with the chaos of war, highlighting the photographer’s futile attempt to impose meaning on suffering. Both poems, though stylistically different, use form to underscore their central message: guilt cannot be contained or escaped, whether through the chaos of memory or the false order of a darkroom.
Effects and Reality of Conflict:
In Remains, Simon Armitage starkly exposes the psychological aftermath of conflict through the lens of a soldier haunted by his participation in violence. The poem’s graphic imagery—”blood-shadow” staining the street—and visceral language (“his bloody life in my bloody hands”) force readers to confront the brutal reality of war beyond battlefield heroism. Armitage uses enjambment and a colloquial tone (“probably armed, possibly not”) to mirror the soldier’s fractured psyche, as he endlessly replays the shooting in his mind. Unlike traditional war poetry, which might glorify sacrifice, Remains reveals conflict’s hidden casualty: the living soldier, trapped in a cycle of guilt and PTSD. The poem’s unresolved ending—”then I’m home on leave. But I blink”—emphasizes how war’s effects persist, blurring the line between battlefield and home.
Theme of Guilt:
Simon Armitage’s Remains presents guilt as an inescapable psychological prison for the soldier, whose participation in violence leaves him traumatized long after the event. The poem’s colloquial tone—”probably armed, possibly not”—initially downplays the shooting, but the brutal imagery of “blood-shadow” and the repetitive, fractured structure reveal his suppressed horror. Unlike the detached language of official war reports, the soldier’s first-person account forces readers to confront the moral ambiguity of his actions, particularly through the nightmarish refrain “his bloody life in my bloody hands. Armitage subverts traditional war narratives by focusing not on heroism, but on the living hell of guilt—a consequence that persists even in safety. The poem’s unresolved ending underscores war’s hidden cost: the permanent scarring of those who enact its violence.
Theme of Individual Experiences
Armitage’s Remains plunges readers into the isolated psyche of a single soldier, exposing how war’s trauma becomes a private, inescapable torment. The poem’s first-person perspective—raw and unfiltered (“I see every round”)—forces us to confront the soldier’s personal moral crisis, detached from collective notions of duty or glory. His repetitive, fractured narration (“probably armed, possibly not”) mirrors the cyclical nature of PTSD, where memory blurs the lines between battlefield and home. Unlike broader war narratives, Remains zooms in on one man’s irreversible transformation: the “blood-shadow” he carries is not a metaphor but a visceral, individual burden. Through this intimate lens, Armitage reveals how conflict colonizes the mind, leaving survivors alone with their guilt long after the physical violence ends.
