The Manhunt (Simon Armitage)

Question 1

CONTEXT (AO3)

Question 2

STRUCTURE

Question 3

FORM

Question 4

‘After the first phase

after passionate nights and intimate days,’

Question 5

‘only then would he let me trace

the frozen river which ran through his face,’

Question 6

‘only then would he let me explore

the blown hinge of his lower jaw,’

Question 7

‘and handle and hold

the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,’

Question 8

‘and mind and attend

the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,’

Question 9

‘and finger and thumb

the parachute silk of his punctured lung.’

Question 10

‘only then could I bind the struts

and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,’

Question 11

‘and feel the hurt

of his grazed heart.’

Question 12

‘Skirting along,

only then could I picture scan,’

Question 13

‘the foetus of metal beneath his chest

where the bullet had finally come to rest.’

Question 14

‘Then I widened the search,

traced the scarring back to its source’

Question 15

‘to a sweating, unexploded mine

buried deep in his mind, around which’

Question 16

‘every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.

Then, and only then, did I come close.’