Remains Flashcards
What anthology is Remains a part of?
- Remains is a part of “The Not Dead” anthology.
Who is this poem based on?
- Guardsman Tromans.
- A man who was discharged from the army due to the fact he suffered from PTSD.
- Involved in Iraq War.
What is Armitage’s message in this poem?
- Show the severity of PTSD, what soldiers truly go through mentally.
- Critiquing the fact that army/ general public don’t acknowledge the PTSD that these soldiers experience.
What is the significance of the title: “Remains?” What could it symbolically represent?
- The “remaining” guilt/ PTSD the man feels after coming home.
- The physical remains of the looters body - described in quite a grotesque manner.
Significance of poem starting: “on another occassion?”
- In media res.
- Shows chaos of the situation.
- Further accentuated by the enjambement (in the middle of the poem) used by Armitage.
- This chaos is how soldiers feel.
What is the significance of the phrase:” probably armed, possibly not?”
- Plosives
- Symbolising the explosions in Iraq.
- He isn’t sure whether he is armed or not: this haunts him , mentally.
What is the significance of phrase: “myself and somebody else and somebody else?”
- Rule of three.
- Lack of clarity.
- Shows how clouded mind of the soldier truly is.
What is the significance of the enjambement between stanza where looter is shot and when he is dead?
- Shows the continuation of bullets flying.
What is significance of Armitage switching from past tense, in stanza when “all let fly”, to present tense in the following stanza?
- Shows that the incident is always present in his mind - he can never forget about it.
What is the effect of the men all “letting fly”? Give 2 specific examples.
OTHER THAN COLQUIAL PHRASES USED.
- “rips” through looter’s life.
- “Image of agony.”
- Serious language here juxtaposes coloquial language, shows that soldier is unable to make sense of situation.
Give examples of coloquial language used in poem?Significance?
- “all letting fly.”
- “Sort of inside out” (the looter)
- “tosses his guts back into his body.”
- Matter of fact/ coloquial tone.
- Trying to desensitise himself from conflict/ has been desensitise/ doesn’t know how to thoroughly describe what has been seen - trauma!
What is the irony of the phrase “end of story?” Think structurally?
- In middle of poem!
- Still more of poem to go until story to finish - symbolising how the man’s trauma continues after he has left Iraq.
What is described as following the soldier week after week in streets?
- “Blood- shadow.”
- Haunting him.
- Blood = symbol of guilt ie. his guilt is following him wherever he goes, can’t escape.
What is significance of phrases “sleep” and “dream” being used? Think what is said around these words.
- Shows that the man haunts him in every moment - he can never relax: his mind feels plagued.
- Repetition of phrase “possibly armed, probably not” around these words. Cyclical structure of incidet replaying in his mind over and over.
How is sibilance used towards the end of the poem? Significance?
“some distant, sun- stunned, sand- smothered land.”
Sibilance shows the dream like state that the soldier is in.
