remains

• "On another occasion, we get sent out"

  • en media res - regular occurrence and it is only 1 of many vile experiences
  • thrown into action just like soldiers are expected to adapt, assuming no mental consequences
  • imperative verb "sent", soldiers are helpless and are left with no choice but to fulfil a murderous duty
• "possibly armed, possibly not."

  • speaker wants to believe vs sliver of doubt remains
  • anaphora, repeated to show how he is still wracked with doubt and guilt as to whether the man was a threat
  • cyclical structure mimics how his doubt keeps returning as though it is engrained within his conscience
  • guilt is the crux of his suffering leading him to remain in a constant state of confusion and despair
• "Well myself and somebody else and somebody else"

  • attempt to syntactically cram the sentence with other people in order to shift the blame
  • flickers from internalisation of guilt to deflection exposing his gruelling mental state of inner turmoil
  • can't fathom or digest the events, as there was no guidance or recognition of PTSD
• "'all of the same mind" / "three of a kind"

  • dehumanised instruments of war, war has stolen all sense of individuality and identity from leaving nothing to separate them as they become carcasses of insanity and shells of their former selves
  • stripped away morals, not viewed to be a human but are instead viewed as an extension of machinery from higher powers, that can be easily disposed of
  • well being was secondary to them being weapons of welfare
  • reference to poker, indictment of dehumanisation
• "and I swear / I see every round"

  • enjambment mimics how he is unable to separate events, trauma causes all of his experiences to be mixed into continuous dialogue mirroring how his memories mix to build and enhance upon his turmoiled mental frame
  • the enjambment occurs at key moments of death and suffering : it breaks him just like it breaks the structure
• "sort of inside out"

  • colloquial language creates a desensitised ambience, soldiers are expected to normalise this brutal onslaught of lives for a war, expected to hide their true emotions behind a tough exterior
• "Then I'm home on leave. But I blink"

  • caesura - highlights the discordant nature of his mindset, forcing the reader to stop, interrupting his sentence just like the flashbacks interrupts his life = disjointed and fragmented mindset and sentence
  • conjunction "but" implies that there is more so his suffering isn't truly over, demonstrating the virulent effects of dwelling on the event relentlessly as he becomes engulfed by inescapable trauma
  • even though he escaped the physical war, he can't beat the mental battle with his thoughts, forcing him to break away from reality
• "And the drink and the drugs won't flush him out"

  • plosive alliteration of toxicities emphasises them as poignant, temporary, coping mechanisms to momentarily escape the hellish thoughts, because their mental health was not recognised
  • subverts the idea that physical trauma was the most immeasurable impact as Armitage shows how devastating and all-consuming the psychological impact is
  • almost as though it is a prolonged suffering, can't escape hell on earth
  • through making an addiction seem like a natural aftermath of experiencing war, it becomes a universal poem that remains timeless
• "some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land"`

  • sibilance mimics bullets but also shows how their suffering is never-ending
  • the life he has lived has been tarnished by these permanent memories that won't fade away with time, he may of physically escaped the way but he was mentally killed,
  • based on the heart-wrenching experience of Guardsman Tromans
• shift from "myself and somebody else and somebody else" to "my bloody hands"

  • personal pronoun "my" juxtaposes previous comradeship
  • he has gradually come to terms with his culpability and guilt instead of putting blame on others
  • also the shift in recollection of the event shows that memory is not infallible and can be corrupt
  • he has become malleable and sensitive due to the detrimental psychological impact
• "his bloody life in my bloody hands"

  • adjective "bloody" - literal blood from his barbaric death or a means of cursing..
  • colloquial lang, shows how soldiers are expected to remain brave and stoic, his casual vernacular mirrors casual nature to violence as a result of being desensitise to it
  • = accustomed to voilence whilst the very act of him discussing his emotions contradicts society's stigma around masculinity
  • blood could be a motif for guilt, the root cause of his suffering, may insinuate that he values the killing as unjust perhaps justifying his feelings of guilt