Simon Armitage The Manhunt After the first phase, after passionate nights and in

Question

Simon Armitage

The Manhunt

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 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.

This poem is about a soldier who has been wounded in battle

1. Who is the speaker in the poem? From whose point of view is the wounded soldier being described?

2. The poem uses a series of metaphors on the same theme.  See if you can see what those metaphors are, and think about how they give the poem unity.

Explanation / Answer

Answer-1- "The Manhunt" is one of the famous poems written by Simon Armitage. This poem represents many physical and psychological effects of a war. The speaker in this poem is a female, Lara Beddoes, wife of an injured soldier named Eddie Beddoes, who has returned home from war in a critical mental and physical condition. The wounded soldier has been described from his wife's point of view who defines all pain she is going through and explores the power of a truly loving couple.

Answer- 2- "The Manhunt" describes the feelings of love and pain. Throughout the poem, metaphors are used to describe the emotional relation between the couple. The metaphor 'frozen river which ran through his face' is used to show pain and emotion. Another metaphor is his jaw is a 'blown hinge' explains that how he is not able to talk of his feelings and experiences to her. His collar bone is 'damaged,porcelain', a metaphor which describes something hard but at the same time easily chipped and cold. All these metaphors give unity to the poem and helps Laura to explain her grief and love towards her injured husband.

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