The Manhunt Flashcards
What is the poem about?
A soldier, his wife, and the effect of the Bosnian War on their relationship
Why was this poem written?
For a documentary called ‘Forgotten Heroes: The Not Dead’
From whose perspective is this poem written from?
The soldiers wife
Implies someone has been lost, needs to be reclaimed
‘Manhunt’
Reflects that their relationship is loving and strong
‘passionate nights and intimate days’
Encompasses Night + Day, loving at all times
Suggests their reunion is short lived
Repetition of ‘after’ in 1st Stanza
Implies hesitation on soldiers part, tension in relationship
Repetition of ‘let me’
Implies she needs permission
Implies injury in first stanza,
Also implies insensitivity and lack of emotion
‘Frozen river’
First violent description of injury
3rd stanza, may reflect that the wife may have not fully picked up on this issue till now
‘Only then would he let me explore/ the blown hinge of his lower jaw’
May also relate to the fact that he may not be able to talk about the things he has seen
Stanza 1-3 structure
Rhyming couplets, reflects love and understanding nature of their relationship
Reflects fragility of the soldier
- ‘Damaged, porcelain collar bone’
- ‘fractured rudder of shoulder-blade’
- ‘parachute silk of his punctured lung’
Stanza 4 - 6 structure
- Enjambement of lines reflects the amount of time it is taking wife to understand her husbands state
- lack of rhyming couplets shows that the relationship is breaking down, lacks understanding
The wife attempts to repair the soldier
- ‘Only then could I bind the struts’
- struts are rods that make up a framework that supports a structure
Suggests recovering the soldier is a long process
‘Climb the rungs of his broken ribs’
- rungs compare his ribs to a ladder, idea of strenuous task
Suggests that the wife is beginning to understand him
‘And feel the hurt of his grazed heart’
Suggests the wife is slowly approaching her husband to identify the source of his behaviour
‘Skirting along’
Metaphor highlighting life changing effects of war
- ‘The foetus of metal beneath his chest’
- Foetus of metal may be describing a bullet. Use of foetus suggests it is as lifefchanging as a baby, also brings them together as a baby would
Suggests the soldiers PTSD is unpredictable
‘Sweating, unexploded mine’
Sweating is indicative of anxiety, links to PTSD
Suggests PTSD is hard to notice
- ‘Buried deep in his mind’
- Also shows just how deeply embedded the trauma of what he has seen is in his mind
Shows that PTSD has a physical impact
- ‘Every nerve in his body had tightened and closed’
- may also reflect how much he is struggling against his PTSD
Suggests that their relationship is getting closer
- ‘Then and only then did i come close’
- also tells us just how complex PTSD is to understand
