Remains - Simon Armitage Flashcards
CONTEXT - What was his inspiration for this poem?
Simon Armitage interviewed returning veterans for their experiences during war, many of them with PTSD.
CONTEXT - Who is this poem about?
Guadsman Tromans - a British soldier that fought in the Gulf War in Iraq
Why is a conversational tone used to talk about the victim being taken away?
CONTEXTUALLY - because he was talking to soldiers, it is their viewpoint when he was talking to them.
Because it is awkward to talk about it, so the speaker is trying to detach themselves from the situation and from emotion “he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out… carted off in the back of a lorry”
What is the motif in this poem
“Probably armed, possibly not” - more likely that he would have a gun as the victim was a looter in a warzone, but the speaker is doubting his own actions as he feels immense guilt, even more so if the person was defenceless.
Who is the victim in the story? (Yeah the speaker is, but the one who was shot - why)?
He was one of many “looters raiding a bank” - Trying to present it that the speaker was doing the right thing at the start, but the more it continues the more he feels bad about it
The poem starts off as “We” then soon turns to “I” once the person has been shot. True or false?
True - the speaker is acting just like every other soldier under commands, but its only when someone has actually died because of it does he start to get his own conciousness and become aware of what he has done - but its too late by then
What reminder of the victim stays there when the speaker is still there, but the body has gone?
“His blood-shadow stays on the street” “I walk right over it week after week”
How is it presented that the speaker is not aware of himself until afterwards?
“I walk right over it week after week” - doesn’t care when he’s there
“But I blink and he bursts again through the doors” - only thinks about it again when he’s at home
“I see every round as it rips through his life” - only considering it in hindsight - present tense puts him in the past situation, so he thinks more of it now its over and just how wrong it was
What’s the last line of this poem?
“His bloody life in my bloody hands”
Why is enjamberment used?
I don’t know, edit when you do
What’s the first line of this poem?
“On another occassion, we get sent out” -
shows the CONTEXT
Perhaps, shows that these situations for soldiers were common “another” and seen as the norm
