The Manhunt Flashcards
Who is the author of The Manhunt?
Simon Armitage
What is the context to the poem?
Laura Beddoes read this poem after her husband Eddie Beddoes was injured at war and had PTSD and depression.
What poems are there to link to this?
-The Soldier
-Dulce et Decorum Est
-She walks in beauty
What is the form?
-Initially there is a rhyme scheme but it disappears as it progresses, showing the brokenness
What does the structure tell us?
Injuries are addressed slowing going deeper into his body, allowing us to explore his injuries in the same slow process of his wife.
‘Damaged, porcelain collarbone’
-Highlights his fragility
-Suggests that war dehumanises people
‘Parachute silk of his punctured lung’
-Highlights the uselessness of his lungs
‘Grazed heart’
-He is lucky that the bullet only grazed his heart
-But the bullet left emotional grazes behind
‘Sweating, unexploded mine’
-Shows the stress and tension caused by his memories
‘Then, and only then, did I come close’
-Lies on a single line, showing the wife’s realisation that her husbands physiological scars are worse than his physical ones.
