Remains

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

Detached informal language
- this is shown through the enjambement. This symbolised no stop of the event of memory.
“On another occasion”
“But I blink”

Starts with first person plural but then changes to first person and makes it more personal.
- sounds like a confession

Quatrains
- regularity of poem symbolises how the memory keeps on coming back.
Last stanza is shorter shows how the pain is incomplete. Suffering isn’t over as no control in his life

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

The poem starts as a detached anecdote but turns into a graphic description of the mans death. Then it turns into a reflection of his guilt.

“He’s here in my head when I close my eyes”
“Dug in behind enemy lines”
- metaphor compares the memory stuck in his mind like a soldier stuck in the trenches

Question 3

Repetition

Answer 3

“Probably armed, possibly not”

• first time it is said he doesn’t care (colloquial language)
• chatty language
• Second time it is more serious. (Graphic imagery)

Symbolises the event echoing in his mind

Question 4

Nonchalance

Answer 4

Initially there is a casual attitude towards the event but that changes. He is shot without warning and his body is thrown into the lorry and “carted off”

Question 5

Guilt

Answer 5

The speaker can’t get the memory of the death out of his mind. He turns to alcohol and drugs and talks about abstract ideas.
“And the drink and drugs won’t flush him out”
“Pain itself , the image of agony”

He ends with knowing he’s guilty because of the blood on his hands

Question 6

Graphic imagery

Answer 6

The mans death is in gory detail showing how he is desensitised to the horrors.

“Tosses his guts back into his body”
“Rips through his life”

Question 7

Context

Answer 7

Armitage is a poet and novelist. He wrote about the effects of ex soldiers. It’s an account of a British soldier who fought in Iraq.