The Manhunt

• parachute silk of his punctured lung

  • alliteration of plosive 'p" - violent imagery - getting stabbed
  • " silk" suggests fragility - he is weaker than before
  • war dehumanises people
  • parachutes are used within the military however a broken one is useless - reflection of how the man feels about himself post war
• and feel the hurt - of his grazed heart

  • repetition of 'and' throughout the poem- small steps towards recovery
  • inconsistent rhyme scheme - half-rhyme - relationship is unpredictable - partially understood link between the physical and emotional pain
  • metaphor - bullet "grazed" past his heart but left emotional "grazes" behind
• a sweating unexploded mine

  • tension and stress caused by memories and nightmares - hasn't dealt with som of his experiences - struggling to overcome them
  • mental scars
  • she has to tread carefully, not trigger the PTSD
• context

  • poem is told from the perspective of a soldier's wife - deals with idea of PTSD and its impacts on the soldier and those around him/her
  • Armitage served as a peace keeper in the Bosnian war before being discharged due to his depression and injuries
• structure

  • poem is organised into couplets - initially these couplets rhyme (“first phase… intimate days”), perhaps reflecting the couple’s harmony when they were first reunite
  • However, as the poem progresses the rhyme scheme falters, reflecting the increasingly disjointed nature of their relationship