Remains - Simon Armitage

'I walk right over it week after week' - Metaphor, always there, go through it in head over and over
No regular rhyme or rhythm - Messed up mind
Northern contemporary language, natural speech
'We' - Pronoun, brotherhood, more than one, personal experience
Stanza 1-4 - Shooting, Stanza 5-8 - After effect
Gulf War
'End of story, except not really' - Should be end, can't stop thinking about it, can't forget
'One of my mates' - Noun, chatty, informal
'Open fire' - Panic, action
The Not Dead documentary
'Get sent out' - Follow orders, made to do it
'On another occasion' - Memory of many
Unrhymed quatrains
'Tackle looters raiding a bank' - Verb, prevent, stop
'Pain itself, the image of agony' - Nouns, realisation of what they've done to the man, brutality
'Legs it' - Coloqial, conversational, links with character
'Probably armed, possibly not' - Adverb, repetition, no real threat, unsure, guilt
'Three of a kind' - Same job, together
'All of the same mind' - Same intention, not individuals, same thoughts
'So we've it this looter a dozen times' - Informal, doesn't care, no remorse, no name
'Letting fly' - Metaphor, slang, bullets
'Somebody else and somebody else' - Nameless, doesn't matter, personal, comrades, unity, unclear memory
'-' - Pause, shock
'He's there on the ground, sort of inside out' - Vague, enjambment, powerful imagery
'I see every round as it rips through his life' - Metaphor, slow motion, see every bullet, violent imagery
'I see broad daylight on the other side' - Metaphor, happens so quick, death
'Tosses his guts back into his body' - Verb, dehumanising, worthless
'Drink and drugs won't flush him out' - Metaphor, can't wash away memory, detox, nothing helps, trying to forget
'I blink' - Verb, enjambment, reality, clear mind, is it real?
'I'm home on leave' - Escapism
'Blood-shadow stays' - Metaphor, stained ground, stained into mind, remains forever in memory
'Sleep' - Noun, should be relaxing/peaceful, can't sleep, disturbed sleep, no control
'Carted off in the back of a lorry' - Discarded like rubbish, disregard, not human
'He bursts again through the doors of the bank' - Metaphor, verb, bursts into mind, violent, still there, reliving, PTSD
'He's here in my head' - Metaphor, alliteration, won't leave, out of breath
'Dream' - Noun, should be positive, nightmare, no peace
'Dug in behind enemy lines' - Metaphor, noun, dug deep into mind
'Not left for dead' - Not buried, haunting him, didn't die at war
'Some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land' - Sibilance, sinister, not at war, not noble
'His bloody life in my bloody hands' - Metaphor, can't clear name, his blood on hands, responsible, swearing/cursing

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Remains - Simon Armitage

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	Created by Samira Choudhury almost 8 years ago