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- Written from the perspective of a wife.
- The poem describes the human cost of the conflict as it describes her experience on her husband’s return and the effect on their relationship of the physical and mental scars that he bore.
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- The title ‘The Manhunt’ suggests a chase or searching for something or that he is lost.
- Images of delicate materials “porcelain” and “silk” suggests beauty and vulnerability.
- Images of broken body parts “grazed heart”, “broken ribs” suggests human casualties of war and the vulnerability of mind and body.
- Pain still growing mentally and physically “foetus of metal” and “unexploded mine” suggests potential to still explode or permanent scarring.
- Final words – “only then did I come close” suggests it is a journey through his pain and healing and their reconciliation as a couple. She is finally closer to ‘catching’ him.
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- The poem is made up of a series of couplets, mostly unrhymed.
- This creates a sense of fragmentation, which matches the feelings of the soldier's wife as she seeks to understand the man her husband has become
- As the poem progresses the rhyme scheme falters, reflecting the increasingly disjointed nature of their relationship.
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- ‘The Manhunt’ was originally aired as part of a Channel 4 documentary, Forgotten Heroes: The Not Dead, in which the painful truth of lives damaged beyond help is shown.
- In the film ‘The Manhunt’ is read by Laura, wife of Eddie Beddoes. Eddie served as a peace-keeper in Bosnia before being discharged due to injury and depression.
- Bosnian Conflict information: Bosnia-Herzegovina is still recovering from a devastating three-year war which accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
- The 1992-1995 conflict centred on whether Bosnia should stay in the Yugoslav Federation, or whether it should become independent.
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