His poetry demonstrates a strong
concern for social issues
Subject
Physical and
mental effects of
living with injuries.
Perspective: wife of a solider
who has sustained injuries at
war and returned home.
Structure
Made up of a
series of couplets,
mostly un-rhymed.
Sense of fragmentation
( broken into pieces)
Matches feelings of
the wife - her husband has changed
Phases of wife
searching for
answers from her
husband
Language
Title - pun on manhunt, wife searching for part of
her husband that she lost at war.
Treating her husband with care: "handle and
hold", "explore", "mind and attend"
Metaphor: "blown hinge" -
comparing to objects rather
than living things.
"damaged, porcelain" -
something hard, but easily
broken.
Reminder: "frozen river that ran
through his face"
"Climb the rungs of his broken ribs" -
detail of her hands exploring the altered
body of her husband
Idea of a ladder: gradual search for answers
Attitudes, Themes & Ideas
About the patience and care of love.
Explores the cost of war on those
serving in the armed forces
"grazed heart" literally because of "the metal beneath
his chest" but also metaphorically
Bullet is inside him like a "foetus" this changes their
life, like having a child changes the relationship
forever.
Lines 23-24 metaphor "a sweating, unexploded mine
buried deep in his mind" the problem is mental not
physical
Poem is not about judging the rights and wrongs of war. But
the impact on a relationship. "Then, and only then, did I
come close" - husbands problems lie in memories.