What happens in the poem remains? “Remains” describes a soldier’s experience of killing a man while stationed in a war zone. The poem examines the effects of guilt and trauma both during and after active duty, and suggests that the effects of wartime violence linger long after soldiers leave the battlefield.
What is happening in the remains poem? ‘Remains’ is based on the experiences of a soldier who served in Basra in Iraq. He suffered severe PTSD as a result of his experiences and the poem recalls one particular event where the soldier shot the looter of a bank and was left with horrendous flashbacks reliving the moment of the man’s death.
How is guilt shown in remains? Guilt: the speaker in this poem is haunted by the guilt of taking another man’s life. He is upset by the fact that the man might have been innocent. This phrase is repeated in the poem, emphasising the speaker’s sense of discomfort at having killed another human being who may have been innocent.
What is the message of remains? ‘Remains’ is about a soldier suffering with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) after murdering a potentially unarmed burglar. The poem explores how soldiers are tormented by war even when they return home, and have to face the consequences of their actions every single day.
What happens in the poem remains? – Related Questions
What happens in remains?
The poem is about a soldier who is haunted by his involvement in a shooting of a bank looter. It also explores the repercussions of war for individuals who come out of conflict zones and raises awareness of conditions such as PTSD.
What is the message of the poem poppies?
War, Parenthood, and Grief. “Poppies” addresses the anxieties and grief that parents face as they send their children to fight in war. It does so through an extended metaphor, comparing going to war to a more mundane kind of departure: a mother sending her child to school.
What technique is blood shadow?
The ‘blood-shadow’ attacks the speaker with a physical reminder of what has happened.
It becomes clear that the speaker needs to get away from the location of the event, which seems to be the case in line 20.
However, the stanza ends with ‘But I blink’ which leaves the reader in a state of anticipation.
What type of poem is remains?
The poem is written as a monologue , from the point of view of the speaker.
The poem has the feel of fast-paced natural speech.
There is no regular rhythmic pattern and there are examples of enjambment , sometimes between stanzas, which adds to the sense of someone telling their story fairly naturally.
What are the themes in the poem remains?
The key themes of the poem include violence, guilt, conflict and the effects of war.
How is PTSD shown in remains?
This forces the soldier to turn to drinks and drugs as seen in the quote “drinks and drugs won’t flush him out”. This shows that to deal with the post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from this life changing event, the soldier has turned to harmful substances to help him get over it.
What is the message of the poem bayonet charge?
Bayonet Charge by Ted Hughes describes the few desperate moments of a soldier’s charge against a defended position, dramatising the feelings of fear, dislocation and confusion.
Why did the poet write remains?
It was written to coincide with a TV documentary about those returning home from war with PTSD.
It is based on Guardsman Tromans, who fought in Iraq in 2003.
*Armitage said ‘These are poems of survivors- the damaged exhausted men who return from war in body but never, wholly, in mind.
What is the imagery of the poem remains?
The imagery is graphic and brutal in its depiction of the killing. The bullets ‘rip’ the man’s body and after they have killed him and he is ‘sort of inside out’. The poet does not spare the reader the details of the shooting, especially when he writes about how the speaker’s mate ‘tosses his guts back into his body’.
How does Armitage present the effects of war in the poem remains?
Armitage describes ‘every round as it rips through (the looter’s) life’ and how his injuries are so severe that the speaker can see ‘broad daylight on the other side’. However, in ‘Remains’, it is not only the physical injuries inflicted by war, but also the psychological effects that the soldier is suffering from.
Where is the turning point in remains?
There is a clear volta (turning point) in the poem at the beginning of the 5th stanza where the soldier’s feelings are focused on his guilt.
What is the message of war photographer?
Duffy’s poem is about how we deal with the suffering of others, who might be faraway.
It takes the character of a war photographer to represent someone more involved and committed than we are.
Duffy appears to admire the photographer, and be critical of the rest of us.
The poem is powerfully anti-war.
What does the poppy symbolizes?
The poppy is the enduring symbol of remembrance of the First World War. It is strongly linked with Armistice Day (11 November), but the poppy’s origin as a popular symbol of remembrance lies in the landscapes of the First World War. Poppies were a common sight, especially on the Western Front.
What type of poem is poppies?
Poppies is a free verse poem, free from the constraints of a regular rhyme or rhythm.
This, and the first-person narration, make the reader feel a part of the mother’s own memories and emotions.
Long sentences and enjambment are used to reflect the rather rambling nature of memory.
What lesson does the poet learn from the attitude of the poppy?
She sees the poppy flower as a reflection of human actions and is taking what she can from it as a life lesson. She wants to make sure, from what she has learned by seeing the vain poppy flower, that she too does not act in that manner.
What type of word is blood shadow?
At once a literal, concrete noun and a metaphor as the blood stain becomes a “shadow” of the life the soldier unnecessarily ended. We begin to see the ghostly form that will haunt Armitage’s character in later stanzas.
Is flush him out a metaphor?
“The drink and the drugs won’t flush him out”. We see what the narrator has been doing to escape this moment, to stop reliving it. But it is a metaphor that is not a metaphor for the narrator.
