Poetry Anthology - Manhunt

Question 1

Key themes

Answer 1

Effects from the war
Love
Pain
Suffering

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

First 8 stanzas follow the path of the bullet
Enjambment throughout the poem reflect the wife’s gradual search

Question 3

Key quotes (8)

Answer 3

The title - ‘The Manhunt’
‘Only then’
‘Damaged porcelain collar-bone’
‘Fractured rudder of a shoulder blade’
‘Punctured lung’
‘Grazed heart’
‘Sweating, unexploded mine’
‘Tightened and closed’
(Ends in a full stop)

Question 4

Analyse the title

Answer 4

Title suggests his wife is metaphorically searching for the man he once was

Question 5

Analyse anaphora of ‘only then’

Answer 5

Anaphora
Reveals recovery is a gradual process

Question 6

Analyse ‘damaged porcelain collar bone’, ‘fractured rudder of a shoulder blade’ and ‘punctured lung’

Answer 6

Semantic field
Images of soldiers damaged body highlight his fragility
His body is broken into separate, damaged pieces suggesting that the war dehumanises people

Question 7

Analyse ‘grazed heart’

Answer 7

Bullet only ‘grazed’ his heart but left behind intense emotional damage
Less about physical impact, more physiological breakdown

Question 8

Analyse ‘sweating, unexploded mine’

Answer 8

PTSD
‘Sweating’ reveals the tension and stress his memories cause
He will never be fully recovered
Psychological trauma

Question 9

Analyse ‘tightened and closed’

Answer 9

Claustrophobic
Surrounded by inescapable, traumatic thoughts from the war

Question 10

Impact of ending in a full stop

Answer 10

Suggests the wife has realised her husbands psychological scars will forever be worse than the physical ones

Question 11

Context

Answer 11

Focuses on a solider who was shot in the Bosnian war
Armitage often writes about real people and their experiences