This allows them to speak the truth and
it becomes personal
3d's: Depressed, disfigured and disabled
PTSD
'A frozen river which ran through his face'
A scar
To a sweating, unexploded mine
buried deep in his mind'
Mental side of things - memories of
war
Context
Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in West Yorkshire. He
studied Geography at Portsmouth University. Afterwards,
he worked as a probation officer, a job which influenced
many of his first poems.
Written from the perspective of the wife of a soldier who
has sustained serious injuries at war and returned home.
The poem explores the physical and mental effects of
living with injuries sustained from the armed forces.