The man hunt

• After passionate nights and intimate days juxtaposition if night and day stills shows there was no difference and they are still in their honeymoon phase
• The frozen river that ran though his face metaphor shiws that he is stuck in time and that in the surface he is numb but underneath there is still a current and that he is hiding emotions
• Damaged porcelain collar bone the adjective porcelain shows that the speaker feels that he is beautiful and too perfect like a china bowl
• The parachute of silk of his punctured lung juxtaposition of parachute and silk shoes that he is durable yet beautiful also shoes that he is valuable to her
• 2 line stanzas shows them being together
• The foetus of metal beneath his chest
• Where the billet finally come to rest
• Every nerve in his body Has tightened and closed
• Only then did I come close shows that it took him a long time to recover and let people close
• Irregular rhyme scheme shows that this was very unexpected.alternatively is could show that he is suffering PTSD and could be triggered at any moment

  ” unexplored mine buried deep in his mind” enjambement shows he has carried if for a while
• Semantic field of anatomy which shows the exploration of his damage and how extreme it was
• Context

  • simon armitage
  • in the film the poem is read by the wife of the soldier who served as a peacekeeper in bonsnia after being discharged due to injury and depression
  • poem is intimate and replicate the human cost of conflict