Poems

The Manhunt

·         Title: narrator is trying to find the man she lost to war, not able to reach beyond the barriers of this dreadful experience. Changed by someone – get back to the person knew and loved. Or menacing – war – hunting someone down, association, connotation is under attack

·         Verbs from narrator to man ‘trace’ ‘explore’ ‘handle’ ‘hold’ ‘attend’ ‘bind’ ‘climb’ ‘picture’ ‘close’ ‘mind’ ‘finger’ ‘thumb’ ‘widened’ ‘traced’ ‘come’ ‘skirting’ – gentle words, not forceful, as far as allowed, taking time ‘explore,’ ‘handle’ not pushing, ‘hold’ ‘mind’ ‘attend’ – pay attention, small parts ‘finger’ ‘thumb’ ‘bind’ – put back together, shows love of narrator, patterns of verbs suggest gentle approach

·         Injury: ‘blown’ ‘damaged’ ‘fractured’ ‘punctured’ ‘broken’ ‘grazed’ ‘bullet’ ‘scarring’ ‘deep’ ‘closed’ ‘hinge’ ‘frozen’ ‘sweating’ ‘tightened’ – different ways in which injured

·         Body parts: ‘face’ ‘jaw’ ‘collar – bone’ ‘shoulder-blade’ ‘finger’ ‘thumb’ ‘lung’ ‘ribs’ ‘heart’ ‘chest’ ‘nerve’ ‘mind’ – everything, shows extent how much attacked, obstacle for her to get back to man – difficult

·         Lines ½: after the first phase, after passionate nights and intimate days,

-          ‘passionate’ rest of the poem is about injuries, moment of joy/celebration once passed love is tested, reality, trying to piece together man

-          Contrast to injury words ‘first phase’ different parts, on-going process

·         Line 3: only then would he let me trace

-          ‘only then’ repeated in verses, shows how long talking, not easy but the narrator is patient

-          ‘let me’ doesn’t want to invade, barrier, obstacle, wait, patient to help him

-          Following outline ‘trace’ not understanding

·         Line 4: the frozen river which ran through his face

-          ‘frozen river’ metaphor, scare down his face, not moving, dull, lifelessness, frozen river describes part of man – coldness, shutting down needs to be brought back to life, ambiguous: scar? Tears? Mark of pain/suffering tracing but can’t understand

-          Sensuous language, frozen – barrier cannot get past

·         Line 5/6: only then would he let me explore the blown hinge of his lower jaw,

-          ‘explore’ trying not understanding

-          ‘blown hinge’ more forceful

-          ‘jaw’ struggling to talk, communication about what has happened is very difficult

·         Line 7/8: and handle and hold the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,

-          ‘porcelain’  china, shows fragile, delicate, smashes easily shows how easily broken he is, she doesn’t want to make it worse

·         Line 9/10: and mind and attend the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,

-          Not forceful, intrusive, suggests care

-          ‘fractured’ broken, another part of him destroyed

·         Line 11/12: and finger and thumb the parachute silk of his punctured lung.

-          ‘parachute silk’ how fragile, delicate, catch when fall, slow fall down, getting better, reference to war, military backdrop

-          ‘punctured lung’ damaged, contrast to #parachute’ which saves you when fall/breaks fall, punctured lung is opposite, hurt

-         …