Remains Flashcards
Who wrote remains?
Simon Armitage
When was remains written?
2008
What could the title suggest?
The guard’s mind remains in Iraq.
What is the main theme of the poem?
The indescribable horrors of war.
What does the beginning “on another occasion” suggest?
Something has gone before, implying that there is nothing at ease for soldier’s.
Give an example of when the soldier suggests that it is a collective responsibility:
“Well myself and somebody else and somebody else are all of the same mind, so all three of us open fire.”
Why does the soldier repeat the line “somebody else”?
To deflect the blame from him self-he wants to make it clear others were involved. He doesn’t want to accept the solitary blame.
Give an example where the soldier takes the blame:
“His bloody life in my bloody hands.”
What is “his bloody life in my bloody hands” a reference to?
Macbeth when Lady Macbeth hallucinates blood in her hands.
What does the broken stanza enjambment “And I swear
I see every round as it rips through his life” reflect?
The change in the soldier-him becoming a broken man.
What does the repetition of “probably armed, possibly not” create structurally?
A cyclical structure
-The poem repeats the same topic
What does the cyclical structure suggest?
The trauma the soldier has experienced is inescapable.
What is the remaining memory?
The image of the looter in the soldier’s head
What does the colloquial language “legs it up the road” at the start suggest?
It is just an everyday event.
What contrasts heavily to the colloquial language used at the start of the poem?
The violent metaphor “every round rips through his life”
