English Literature : How to label a poem

The poem Manhunt is a poem written by Simon Armitage. It is based on a true story. The poem is about a wife's struggles to find her husband theoretically as he has changed due to the effects off war.

After the first phase,

after passionate nights and intimate days, 

only then would he let me trace

the frozen river which ran through his face,

only then would he let me explore

the blown hinge of his lower jaw,

and handle and hold

the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,

and mind and attend the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,

and finger and thumb the parachute silk of his punctured lung.

Only then could I bind the struts

and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,

and feel the hurt

of his grazed heart.

Skirting along,

only then could I picture the scan,

the foetus of metal beneath his chest

where the bullet had finally come to rest.

Then I widened the search,

traced the scarring back to its source

to a sweating, unexploded mine

buried deep in his mind,

around which every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.

Then, and only then, did I come close.

Opposites (Antitheses) have been uses This shows she spent a long time to be his everything in some ways. The words that are underlined suggests the speaker husband has been in this state off mind for a very long time

The line that has been underlined is a metaphor. This shows that the speakers husband has been Physically wounded and in this case a scar on his face.

There is a lexical field of damage. This also suggests that speaker and her husbands relationship has also been damaged due to the effects of war.

Lexical field of body parts this suggests that the speaker wants to get close to her husband however in reality she cant as he wont let her.

Lexical field of equipment. We don't know that the husband is a war victim so this shows he has been to war has been to war. Another thing that is curious is that all the equipment that is mentioned in this poem has been destroyed in one way or another. This could suggest that in reality the speakers husband actually had faulty equipment.

Connotations of love. The word heart has the connotations of love however the word grazed suggests that this love has been broken and in reality this is what happened.

The bullet is described as a foetus. Something small and innocent. This is the opposite of a bullet. Which is a weapon which is made for the sole purpose of killing.

The speaker want her husband to confide in her however he doesn't want oi talk about his experience therefore he is an unexploded mine because he could lash out anytime he wants.

The speaker knows her husband could be dangerous however she still loves him so she doesn't mind getting close to him. The speaker knows he would feel better if he told her what he had experienced at war.

Thank You

Umar Arif

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