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GCSE Poetry- Remains - Coggle Diagram
GCSE Poetry- Remains
Recap Points
"Somebody else" at the start of the poem deflects blame away from speaker, syntactically the line is dominated by this phrase showing how the speaker is trying to minimise his role
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Poem comes from collection of poems called 'The Not Dead' about discharged servicemen published in 2008
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Cyclical structure reinforces the idea that the suffering is continuous:"Probably armed, Possibly not" (line 4-22)- trauma is inescapable
Vague language used because it is impossible to convey the true horrors of war "sort of inside out". Shows he was never fully prepared for the outcomes of war
Verb "flush"- soldier is unclean since shooting, sickly
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Shift in final line: "his bloody life in my bloody hands"- pronoun "my" marks a change in the soldier's perspective because they take responsibility
The domestic impact of conflict- it was a joint decision to kill the looter but the reality is when he returns home he has to deal with the consequences (PTSD) alone
Enjambment shows life changing moment when he lets the bullet fly by going to the next stanza (as opposed to next line) exaggerates how this has ruined the soldier's life
Use of sentence lengths reflects trauma as the soldier is broken:"Then I'm home on leave."- suggests finality and that his suffering will be over so he can move on
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Form
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First person plural ("we") which then changes to first person singular ("I")- makes the poem become more personal, sounding like a confession
Final couplet have the same metre- gives a feeling of finality, hinting his guilt will stay with him forever
Key Quotes
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"Probably armed, Possibly not"
Structure
Volta (turning point) at the beginning of the fifth stanza where the soldier's tone, thoughts and emotions are changed by his guilt
Begins as though it will be an amusing anecdote, but quickly turns into a graphic description of a man's death
'The Not Dead'
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Channel 4 documentary of the same name about soldiers who returned from conflicts and how they coped
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