‘Remains’, by Simon Armitage, is taken from the poetry collection ‘The Not Dead’,
a collection of poems about discharged servicemen, published in 2008. Remains is based on the
true story of Guardsman Tromans, who was a machine gunner in the Iraq war in 2003.
In the poem, three soldiers were called to clear a bank that was being looted. As the
soldiers approached the bank, one of the looters ran out, probably armed, so all three soldiers
shot him. and the man was taken away. But the blood stain remained on the ground, and
the solider saw it week after week when he patrolled the area.
Eventually, the soldier went home on leave. Now, we learn that he could not get rid of
the image of the man he shot. The solider begins to abuse drink and drugs to try to
forget the image, but he cannot get it out of his head.
Let me just point out, this video is a quick recap of the poem – to learn more, watch
my full analysis which I’ll link at the end.
This poem presents the true horror of war, as well as the effects of conflict on domestic
life.
Armitage uses repetition to reflect the sense of guilt the soldier feels. He describes the
soldiers involved as ‘myself and somebody else and somebody else’. The repetition
of ‘somebody else’ is here used to deflect the blame from the speaker alone. He wants
to make it clear that others were involved. Syntactically, the line now becomes dominated
by the others, suggesting that the speaker wants to minimise the role he took
in the event.
However, notice the shift in the final line where the narrator explains ‘his bloody
life in my bloody hands’. The use of the pronoun ‘my’ marks a change in the soldier’s
perception. The poem ends with the acknowledgement that the speaker is taking personal responsibility.
The domestic impact of conflict is presented here: It might have been a joint decision,
but the reality is that, at home again, he deals with the consequences alone.
Armitage uses enjambment to show the life changing moment when the soldier shot the
looter: Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear
I see every round as it rips through his life –
Enjambment, carrying a sentence over onto another line, is exaggerated here as the sentence
continues not just onto another line but a whole new stanza. This break between the action
causes the reader to stop, and emphasises how this
is the very moment which ruined the soldier’s life. From
this point on, the soldier became a different person. The forced break of line and stanza
reflects the broken man the soldier became after this event
took place.
Armitage’s use of sentence length also reflects the trauma the soldier experienced: ‘Then
I’m home on leave.’
Look at that full stop. This short sentence suggests it’s over – the soldier will
be able to move on and forget what happened. But of course, that
isn’t the case.
Armitage reinforces this idea, that the trauma of conflict is never over, through his use
of a cyclical structure. On line 22 we read:
‘Sleep, and he’s probably armed, and possibly not’
This is repetition of line 4:
‘Probably armed, possibly not’
The whole thing goes around in a circle, it repeats itself, suggesting that the trauma
the soldier has experienced is inescapable.
Armitage’s use of vague language reflects the indescribable horror of war.
‘He’s on the ground, sort of inside out’ ‘sort of’ is vague language, reflecting
the impossibility of describing the true horrors of war. It suggests that, despite his army
training, the speaker is not prepared for the harsh reality of killing someone.
Back at home on leave, the narrator turns to substance abuse, but the ‘drink and drugs
won’t flush him out’. The ‘him’ in question is clearly
the looter, but it’s the verb ‘flush’ that I’m interested in
here. When do we flush something out? The imagery is here linked to sickness: if you
have a fever, you need to flush it out, to expel the sickness
from the body. ‘Flush’ in this sense means to ‘cleanse’,
to rid of something unpleasant. So, the word ‘flush’ suggests that the soldier is now
unclean, sick, because of the shooting.
When describing the memory of the looter being stuck in the soldier’s head, Armitage uses
the war metaphor ‘dug in behind enemy lines’.
This line might seem fitting for a war poem, but we must
remember that the narrator is at home on leave. The use of war imagery whilst at home on leave
therefore reflects the impact war has had on him: he begins to think in a manner associated
with war and conflict. It is inescapable, even
in a domestic setting.
So which poems compare well with ‘Remains’? Well, as a poem about the true horror of war,
it compares with ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’, ‘Exposure’, ‘Bayonet Charge’
and ‘War Photographer’. If we are looking at the poem as describing the effects of conflict
on domestic life it can be compared with ‘War Photographer’, ‘Poppies’ and ‘Kamikaze’.
For more on this poem, pick up a copy of Mr Bruff’s Guide to Power and Conflict poetry,
available exclusively in eBook form and linked in the description. If you like this shorter
style of analysis video do give it a thumbs up and I will make some more, but remember:
this video isn’t intended to tell you everything you need to know about the poem – it’s
a recap for revision purposes. For the full lesson, check out the video linked here on-screen.