The Manhunt by Simon Armitage

Context

* ‘The Not Dead’ documentary about PTSD shared a name with the poetry collection
* Raising awareness of ex-Iraq solider’s PTSD
* It was ‘Laura’s Poem’ based on her
* Wife of Bosnia peacekeeper who was discharged for mental and physical damage

Language

* ‘After the first phase’
* Warlike
* She has been affected by the war as well

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* ‘passionate nights and intimate days’
* Antithesis
* Significant amount of time to recover

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* ‘blown hinge of his lower jaw’
* Metaphor
* Irreversible damage

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* ‘Parachute silk of his punctured lung’
* Oxymoronic
* Won’t work if it’s punctured
* Feels as if there is no support
* Makes his wife sad

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* ‘Trace’, ‘Explore’, ‘Skirting along’
* Semantic field of searching

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* ‘foetus of metal’
* Growing pain

Form

* Persona poem in first-person perspective
* Intimate and personal

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* Rhyming couplet
* Suggest two people have to work hard
* Although apart physically, emotionally together

Structure

* ‘Only then’
* Repetition
* Slow progress and endless recovery

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* AABBCC in the first 3
* Before the exploration everything seems fine

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* Break down of rhyme scheme
* Break down of mental state
* Or their relationship