Remains

• What poems can be compared to remains?

  Memory: Kamikaze

  Experiences and conflict of war: Poppies, Bayonet charge, war photographer
• "probably armed, possibly not"


  Shows a lot of uncertainty and doubt

  Repetition of "probably" creates a cyclical structure to show how these events keep happening

  Uncertainty contrasts to the definite action in the following stanzas
• "It rips through his life, I see broad daylight on the other side"


  Violent metaphor contrasts with the colloquialism in the first 2 stanzas

  Grotesque language and imagery shows how desensitised the speaker and other soldiers became to these events
• "and tosses his guts back into his body, then he's carted off in the back of a lorry"


  The casual verb "tosses" connotates to a lack of care and respect, dehumanising the robber making it seem like a natural reaction.

  The rhyme "body" and "lorry" suggest its a routine and they are used to it

  Shows nonchalance and a casual attitude
• "end of the story, except not really"

  Volta of the poem, changes the mood and tone

  The colloquial expression "end of story" juxtaposed with "except not really" effectively conveys the ongoing struggle with PTSD
• "his bloody life in my bloody hands"


  repetition of "bloody" could either show the man's blood or the speaker swearing in anger.

  throughout the poem the speaker is tormented by whether the man was armed or not and in this line he realises he is guilty and holds responsibility

  The poem starts with "we" but switches to "I" becoming more personal, sounding like a confession of his actions
• quatrains show how he is trying to get his emotional state in some sort of order and trying to gain control but the short stanza at the end shows he is unlikely to recover from the remorse and guilt