Remains Flashcards
form
no regular line length or rhyme scheme making it sound like someone telling a story
speaker starts in first person plural but changes to singular and the poem becomes more personal sounding like a confession
in final couplet both lines have the same metre to give a feeling of finality and hints guilt will stay with soldier
“then im home on leave”- short simple sentence suggests he thinks once home he will forget the terrible things hes seen. suddeness of line suggests speaker is confused
“but i blink” - stanza ending reflects the blinking - the enjambment carries you forward and the horror is still there when the next stanza starts
“sleep… dream” - short words seperated from rest of the lines by caessurae sound like gun shots
“my bloody hands” by end he feels completely responsible
structure
poem begins as if it is going to be an amusing anecdote but quickly turns to a graphic description of a mans death . there is a clear turning point at the beginning of the fifth stanza where the soldiers tone thoughts and emotions are changed by guilt
“on another occasion” - sounds like one in a series of stories and the reader is listening in
“all three of us open fire”- ‘open fire’ comes as a surprise as the sudden violence does not fit with the casusal tone
“end of story, except not really”- turning point
graphic imagery
mans death is described in gory detail to remind reader of the horrors of war but also shows dhow desensitised to death and violence the speaker was at the time
” it rips through his life” violent metaphor contrasts with the colloquial style of first two stanzas
“broad daylight on the other side” graphic imagery of being able to see through the body
“his blood shadow stays on the street”- visual reminder of death and foreshadows the memories that will haunt him
“dug in behind enemy lines” metaphor compares the memory in his mind to a soldier stuck in a trench
“his bloody life”- double meaning of the mans blood or swearing in anger
colloquial lang
chatty lang helps make the poem sound like a story but also trivialises the mans death
” legs it”- colloqiual expression makes it sound like an ordinary anecdote
“sort of inside out”- almost childish description of the mans body - speaker is unable to process it in an adult way
” tosses his guts back into his body”,”carted off in the back of a lorry”- casual action shows there was no respect for the dead man
repetition
words are repeated to reflect the way the killing is repeated in his mind
repetition of ‘all’ and ‘three’ in second stanza makes it seem he wants the reader to know it wasnt just him which hints his guilt
‘i see’ repeated at start of stanza 3 to emphasise the visual horrors
repetition of line four in stanza 1 ‘probably armed , possibly not ‘ shows he is replaying it in his mind
