English Lit - Remains

• Remains

  Poem by Simon Armitage about a soldier's experience in the Iraq War, published in 2008
• Poem

  • Based on the true story of Guardsman Tromans, a machine gunner in the Iraq War in 2003
  • Describes an incident where three soldiers shot a looter at a bank
• Incident described in the poem

  1. Soldiers called to clear a bank that was being looted

  2. As the soldiers approached, a looter ran out, probably armed

  3. All three soldiers shot the looter

  4. The looter was taken away, but the bloodstain remained on the ground
• Soldier saw the bloodstain

  Week after week when he patrolled the area
• Soldier went home on leave


  Could not get rid of the image of the man he shot
• Soldier's response

  Began to abuse drink and drugs to try and forget the image, but could not get it out of his head
• Poem

  • Presents the true horror of war and the effects of conflict on domestic life
  • Uses repetition to reflect the soldier's sense of guilt
  • Shifts in the final line to show the soldier taking personal responsibility
• Poetic techniques used

  1. Enjambment to emphasize the life-changing moment when the soldiers shot the looter

  2. Short sentences to suggest the trauma is over, but reinforcing that the trauma is inescapable

  3. Vague language to reflect the indescribable horror of war

  4. War metaphors to show the impact of war on the soldier's domestic life
• ‘Bloody life in my bloody hands’


  Could be an illusion to Macbeth and the hallucinations

  Motif of blood and hands is a reoccurring theme where blood symbolises guilt

  Metaphor ‘bloody’ is both literal and metaphorical, merging a physical and mental consequence
• ‘His blood shadow stays on the street’


  ‘Shadow’ suggests an imprinted memory in his mind as a shadow follows you around and sticks with you

  ’Blood’ could also represent guilt
• ‘I see every round as it rips through his life’


  ‘rips’ suggests the fragility of the victim to easily tear him apart

  Ambiguous imagery in ’his’ because no detail behind victims identity
• ‘End of reality, except not really’


  Structural method : Volta

  Victims story has ended yet the soldiers has just begun
• ‘Probably armed, possibly not’


  He is uncertain, guilt is playing on his mind

  Refrain (later in poem) shows he is reliving past events
• ‘Probably armed, possibly not’ (motif)
• ‘Broad daylight on the other side’ / ‘sort of inside

  out’ / ‘the image of agony’
• ‘Tosses his guts back into his body’
• ‘End of story except not really’ / ‘when I am home on leave’ / ‘But I blink’
• ‘And the drink and drugs wont flush him out’
• ‘His bloody life in my bloody hands’ (link to imagery of blood throughout the poem)
• Armitage highlights the long-lasting impact of war that continue for soldiers long after active duty; Armitage specifically highlights the mental turmoil of war on soldiers and how actions committed in the heat of battle can linger and cause great suffering and distress long-after war(it is a poem about PTSD)
• The poem reveals the guilt and trauma caused by war; it highlights how man can struggle to accept the acts of violence committed in the moral grey area of war and how this guilt can haunt them – ultimately, it shows the complexity around the morality of war
• It emphasises the deathly consequences of war but also illustrates that survival is not easy and simple either
• This poem


  Specifically about PTSD and the long-lasting and enduring impact of war for soldiers after they return the battlefield
• The poem highlights that the suffering in war can be long-lasting and enduring
• The poem begins with

  Narrator/speaker (the soldier) describing him and his fellow soldiers shooting a looter dead in Iraq
• The poem quickly moves on from the attack on the looter


  To the long-lasting mental turmoil for the soldier who is plagued with doubts about if his actions were morally justified when he returns home
• The narrative emphasises the inescapable suffering of the soldier when he returns home
• Armitage himself: 'This poem is for "the survivors – the damaged, exhausted men who return from war in body but never, wholly, in mind"'