Remains

• Poem Remains was written by Simon Armitage

  • Simon Armitage was born in 1963, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
• Meaning of Remains and how this links with the poem

  • The parts left over when other parts have been used, removed or destroyed -> the soldier has been used in the machine of war so all that is left of him is in remains because he's a mentally broken person.
  • Links to the description of a person's body after death
  • Metaphorically, part of the soldier dies
• Remains - quotes and analysis

  "On another occasion"

  Colloquial language at the opening

  "Every round as it rips through his life"

  Harsh language

  • Armitage has juxtaposed two different types of language in his poem because it paints a stronger picture of the before and after effects of conflict on the soldier from carefree and relaxed to severely traumatised.
• Remains quotes and analysis

  "Probably armed, Possibly not"

  Both phrases are composed of 4 syllables, suggesting there was an equal chance that the man was armed or unarmed.This is juxtaposed by the division of probability between 'probably' and 'possibly'.

  This implies that the military had conditioned the soldiers to assume the worst and shoot without certainty, highlighting the complete disregard for waste of human life. 'Losses' this verb reflects the treatment of the looters as rubbish showing disrespect for human life
• Remains quotes and analysis

  "Somebody else and somebody else"

  Repetition of 'somebody' to minimise his own role

  Syntactically, the line now becomes dominated by the other soldiers

  'All three of us'

  Trying to deflect the blame.

  Last verse "My'. The poem ends with the acknowledgement that the narrator is taking responsibility
• Remains quotes and analysis 


  'Three of a kind all letting fly and I swear I see every round as it rips through his life'

  Enjambment through a Stanza break between the action causes the reader to stop. This emphasises that this precise moment has ruined the soldiers life. So, the forced break of line and stanza reflects the broken man the soldier became after this event took place.
• Remains quotes and analysis

  'He's there on the ground, sort of inside out'

  • Armitage use of vague language rerlects the indescribable horror of war (-Bayonet Charge).
  • 'Sort of' reflects the impossibility of describing what it actually is. Despite this army training the narrator in the poem isn't prepared for the harsh reality of killing somebody
• Remains quotes and analysis

  'Then I'm home on leave.'

  The caesura suggests there's a finality to this short blunt sentence as there's still trauma

  'Drink and drugs won't flush him out'

  The soldier is now unclean and sick because of shooting
• Remains quotes and analysis

  Sun stunned, sand-smothered land' Armitage emphasises the significance of this line by employing sibilance, causing the reader to be invested. The compound adjectives consisting of the positive 'sun' and 'sand' combined with the negative 'stunned' and 'smothered' reflects how there's nothing positive left for the narrator. Everything he experiences is now tainted with the evil of war.
• Remains quotes and analysis

  'Dug in behind enemy lines'

  The use of war imagery whilst at home on leave reflects the significant impact war has had on him. At the beginning he was at war using casual language, now he's at home using war language, thinking in a manner associated with war and conflict.
• Remains quotes and analysis

  'His bloody life in my bloody hands' - last line

  Here, Armitage juxtaposes the soldier and the looter. The looters 'life' in the soldiers 'hands' conveys the lingering connection to the killing which haunts the soldier.

  "His" and "my" shows that the two are defined to carry out their remaining time linked in contrast with each other. The soldier forms a metaphorical image of his victims, " life" even in death. The soldier cannot forget the horrors of war. He is stuck in contrast with the conflict of his killing. Its inescapable
• Probably armed, possibly not

  Alliteration. Recurring theme of questioning throughout the poem
• I swear


  This monologue is a confession to his responsibility and guilt that he feels
• I see

  Repetition
• Stanza four


  Uses half rhyme

  Half rhyme reflects the fractured/unsettled mind of the speaker
• Stanza seven and last stanza

  Rhyming with “sand“ and “hands”

  Full rhyme emphasises completeness, showing that he now accepts the deep feelings he feels towards the looter