Remains by Simon Armitage

“On another occasion, we got sent out”

• Stars in medias res- in the action

• “occasion” infers that the speaker has been affected by this experience, but it is just one of many

  • It also implies that he was building up to this occasion as it is the worst experience he’s had

• “sent out” sounds less like a job and more as a punishment as if it were a school

  • We can imply that war is a kind of expulsion or punishment as if he was expelled from his own identity as he tries to distance himself from the actions he’d committed

“I swear/I see every round as it rips through his life-”

• The gap between the second and third stanza (between the slash) indicates a volta within the poem- the poem goes from collective responsibility to personal responsibility

• The speaker moves from “we” to “I” showing that he bears the weight of guilt on himself and he doesn’t see it as a collective responsibility

  • The harsh “r” alliteration and the metaphor of ripping through the mans life highlights how the speaker doesn’t see this an attack but rather the complete and merciless destruction of someone’s life

• “see” indicates this is said in the present tense and reveals that the speaker is re-enacting the scene in his head constantly and it is vivid

• “round” highlights the idea of circularity, the fact that the speaker has to go out and repeat this atrocity again and again and live through the trauma again and again both in reality and in his head

“One of my mates goes by/and tosses his guts back into his body”

• Colloquial language of “mate” creates a casual tone

• The casual action of “tossing” creates a juxtaposition against the horror of what is actually happening

  • The narrator speaks as if it’s normal because of the fact that this is just “another occasion”

• The sibilance in the repetition of the ‘s’ sounds creates a sinister mood for an equally sinister action

• “tossing your guts” also refers to being sick which could imply that the soldier himself is feeling sick as the sight of the robber

  • In the moment of killing, the soldiers were casual and unfazed, but when looking upon what they done, especially later on, they feel disgust at what they did

“And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out-”

• Repetition of “and” implies that the speaker keeps returning to drinking and drugs instead of facing his actions

  • This could be to block out his depression with class A drugs

  • He has built an addiction which is based on trying to escape the war, but even the addiction is a constant reminder of what he is trying to escape- this shows his guilt is inescapable

  • Armitage is describing every soldier’s experience through one soldier as we see that this is just another “occasion”

• “flush him out” is military language and you would flush the enemy out of their hiding place

  • This shows how he holds extreme guilt he cannot get rid of or eliminate

  • It could also imply that the drink and drugs are detrimental to the soldiers and he cannot flush out the man and confront his past

  • In order to flush the man out, he needs to confront his past and his actions with a sober mind, but this is something he cannot bear to do

  • Also this refers to excrement as if this memory is something he wants to flush away like you would do with a toilet

    • The excrement could also be referring to him as someone who is a worthless murderer showing he is not only guilty and remorseful, but also feels self-disgust

“but near to the knuckle, here and now,/his bloody life in my bloody hands.”

• The last line is not a rhyming couplet like the two lines before: “sand” and “land” which creates discordance which represents the chaos and disorder of the speaker’s life and thoughts

• The “bloody hands” is a literary allusion to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth which is a symbol of guilt for the murder of a defenceless person

  • This implies that the looter’s death was just as importance and tragic as a king’s and those effects will be felt for not only the family, but also his executors

• “my” contrasts with “We” at the start of the poem as he takes personal responsibility

  • The consequences of shouldering this burden could be suicide, but equally it could create hope that he will be able to cure himself

  • If the person he is talking to is a reporter, it could be a confession before suicide

  • If the person is a psychologist/therapist, then it could be seen as the first steps towards a new hope as he accepts and understands what he has done

  • Simon Armitage invites us to decide the fate of the narrator

• “near to the knuckle” is a metaphor which normally means breaking a taboo

  • This could be the soldier breaking the persona being a brave soldier and giving into his fears which goes against social convention

  • There is also imagery of a first which could imply that he will continue to fight this fear

Form and structure

• This poem is a monologue

• The poem stars in medias res- in the action