THE MANHUNT
- Created by: lawrencet4
- Created on: 20-05-18 20:25
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- The Manhunt Simon Armitage
- 1: War affects relationships
- Arrangement into 13 couplets
- Initially, these couplets rhyme and express somewhat of a positive vibe, but then transpire into a lack of rhyme and a disconnect between each consecutive line, as the couple feel disconnected.
- First couplet "passionate nights and intimate days" reflects on their devotion towards each other in the past that ceases to be mentioned again; a thing of the past. The wife stays vigilant in healing her husband.
- "Laura's poem."
- "the blown hinge of his lower jaw"
- Use of metaphor to show it's physically broken and in pain, but metaphorically is unable to communicate to her his feelings.
- "Only then"
- Anaphora repeated throughout to show the slow healing process in "hunting" for her husband.
- Arrangement into 13 couplets
- 2: Dehumanized
- "Handle and hold/ The damaged porcelain collar-bone."
- Synantic parallels (handle, hold) give the poem emphasis on the delicate treatment of the soldier, as if he's literally fragile.
- Oxymoronic "damaged porcelain" makes this seem unnatural and wrong.
- Enjambment shows an everlasting agony.
- "the parachute silk of his punctured lung."
- Comparison of a damaged, unusable parachute emphasizes how the soldier feels useless and damaged.
- Lexical field of 'silk' and 'porcelain' show how precious materials have been ruined by war.
- EMOTIONAL FREEFALL; unable to stop himself and needs his wife to help him. Contrasts a masculine position in society, especially for soldiers.
- "Handle and hold/ The damaged porcelain collar-bone."
- 3: Traumatized
- "Foetus of metal buried beneath his chest"
- His wound is part of him, as a fetus baby is one with their mother. Suggests the soldier's injuries will be lifechanging like the birth of a child.
- Irony is that a fetus is the start of life and happiness; a bullet is the ending of life and sadness.
- Oxymoron of cold, hard metals and a warm, lovable fetus. He may feel effeminate or abused by war.
- "A sweating, unexploded mine/ Buried deep in his mind"
- His mind is metaphorically a dangerous, militarized territory.
- Can both explode at any time and also be the distress of the soldier, where he may explode at any time.
- "Sweating" creates a sense of fear and tension, accentuated by enjambment that simulates the flow of sweat.
- "Foetus of metal buried beneath his chest"
- CONTEXT: Written for a documentary during the Bosnian conflict. Known as 'Laura's poem' initially in the perspective of the wife.
- 1: War affects relationships
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