Remains

Question 1

Title and theme

Answer 1

Grim word,
Connotations of death and gore.
Theme of memory or guilt. ‘Drink and drugs couldn’t flush him out’

Question 2

Beginning

Answer 2

‘On another occasion, we got sent out’

• ‘another’ shows repetition
• ‘sent out’ shows lack of choice.

Question 3

Soapaims

Answer 3

• ‘probably armed, possibly not’
• ‘we’…’all’ (spreads guilt)
• ‘rips through his life’
• ‘blood-shadowed’

Question 4

Soapaims again

Answer 4

• ‘sum-stunned, sand-smothered land’ (sibilance)

- ‘drink and drugs couldn’t flush him out’

Question 5

Stricter

Answer 5

• no rhyme scheme
• caesura, “I’m home on leave. But I blink”
• colloquialism (makes it talking pace)

Question 6

Ending

Answer 6

‘His bloody life in my bloody hands’

• ‘bloody’ double meaning
• grim imagery
• ‘my’ shows guilt his fault

Question 7

Context

Answer 7

• poet = simon Armatige
• in the collection called ‘the not dead’
• about the Iraq war
• he said they ‘return in body but never fully in mind’
• link to PTSD