Manhunt, was written for a film called Not Dead, about returning War Veterans. The poem itself has 3 personas composed into 1 from 3 conflicts. A old man in his 80s, a peacekeeper and a younger man who serve in Iraq. This poem was influenced from the stories about Shell Sock which many of the soldiers have experienced.Manhunt is the closest Simon Armitage could get to a form of war poetry as a man who has not fought in the war; the voice of this poem however is not a male soldier but a woman (Eddy's wife Laura).Laura was a nurse, who watched Eddy on the frontline and had to clean up the mess and never was able to intervene. She had fallen in love with a soldier and fulfilled every foundation of a relationship including intimacy but being able to touch him was so hard due to his memories of being shot through the cheek and having that bullet ricochet through him.
Manhunt is about: - A women that has a husband who has been apart of the war (1st World War) - They are close with one another - She seems to become much closer to touch his scars when she is intimate with him - She examines his facial injuries from a previous event - She also looks at his colar bone and ribs ~ looking at the path this bullet fired at her husband had made - She also sees the fractures and great agony her husband is in - She tries to trace the bullet to the "source" (where it had originally been) - She then glances at him noticing that his mind was preoccupied and trying to understand the abrupt nature of him (after the war as he has changed) - But only seems to notice how his body has become very tensed and he seems like he has a everlasting burden constantly on his mind and never abating - From this point this women can no longer read through her husband...
'Manhunt' is about a soldier who fought in the war and suffered from "cell shock". Armitage creates an image of a soldier fighting on the front line- except it is in a womans' point of view. The soldier suffered terrible injuries which the woman (healer) was trying to help him with. She sewed him up and talked to him- guiding his speech for him to express his feelings on his confused mind. This poem is based on a real life scenario and opinions/feelings of the people that were in the war, therefore it has its own persona.
The poem "Man Hunt" is based upon a Channel 4 documentary about the toils of war, and looks at PTS (post traumatic stress). This particular poem focuses on the first time the partner of a wounded service can make physical contact with him after he was shot in the neck and had the bullet trapped in his body. While exploring the war torn body of her partner she notices the physical and mental pain he’s suffering due to the fighting. What’s more, as she looks at each detail of his body, she describes it making links to the military (“parachute silk of his punctured lung”, “fractured rudder of shoulder-blade”), as if it is now permanently part of his body and life. Towards the end she notices his mental pain, but rather than describing it as a piece of used or broken military equipment, she describes it as a weapon, “unexploded mine” and it’ll be only a matter of time before it is triggered and he will be put through even more pain, and he can’t escape the pain as it is now “buried deep in his mind”.
The poem is about a woman that is laying with her husband that has returned from war and he is finally letting her touch him so now she's examining his scars.
"The Manhunt" seems to be about many things. The one thing that's most prominent (to me, anyway)is the effect war and battle has on a person and their relationships with others. The emotionally and physically wounded man portrayed is so hurt that not only is he affected, but his wife is too. The wife is unable to fathom his misery and desperately and tenderly tries to do so and tries to help him reacquaint himself with the reality he most likely has condemned due to war and ultimately, to reacquaint both herself and her husband's self with his body through means of physical communication. Eventually she is able to, although very partially.
Manhunt seems to interpret the idea of a man not only scarred and in pain on the outside but also on the inside as implied by the last stanza; "every nerve in his body had tightened and closed. Then and only then, did I come close." it implies an emotional connection is happening between two people as they are both giving and receiving. “Close” indicates that there is intimacy happening but it is not just physical; it also refers to a more soulful and understanding connection that happens through acceptance. “...the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,... and feel the hurt of his grazed heart.” designates the idea of a man being scarred physically but then that pain and wound is also part of his heart making it obvious that the man in the poem has gone through some type of war or fight. The persona comes from a woman. The opening stanza “after passionate nights and intimate days” indicates that it isn’t a first meeting which could mean this is some sort of girlfriend or wife and the man she is talking has been in war and maybe it has been hard for him to accept his injuries allowing her to touch him at that moment in the poem.
The poem is based on a solider injured by a bullet trough his face down to his body; but the narrative voice is his wife as she speaks about how she felt and how the injury affected both their lives
Manhunt is about a women’s hunt to find the man that she ultimately used to know as his body seems to be a foreign place, a place which she was not used to. As before their relationship was passionate, intimate and warm however now the man seems aloof to every touch she places upon him. As when touched the man seems cold which does not give the impression of a steaming relationship but one which formerly had the flame burning but does not have now. Manhunt is ultimately about the effects of being in the army, the traumatic stress which causes people to be detached from the ones closest to them due to unforgiving memories which are not laid to rest but live with him forever and forever. Therefore this woman is feeling the full on effects of these everlasting memories due to the intimacy they now as a couple possess.
Manhunt, I think, is a poem about a shell shocked veteran coming back from war; after being shot in the face. The bullet bounced around inside him, damaging various parts of his body. After being treated and returned home, his wife was distressed at how she was not allowed to touch or tend to his wounds. The poem is about the first time she was allowed to feel him again.
When first reading the poem it seems to be about a man with some sort of insecurity. the poem speaks of a barrier between the wife and the husband which the wife is trying to surpass. When then taking this poem into context we learn that the poem is essentially the soldiers recovery from his mental and physical scars which he attained during the war, through the perspective of his wife who is seeing a very different man to who she had known
Manhunt, was written for a film called Not Dead, about returning War Veterans. The poem itself has 3 personas composed into 1 from 3 conflicts. A old man in his 80s, a peacekeeper and a younger man who serve in Iraq. This poem was influenced from the stories about Shell Sock which many of the soldiers have experienced.Manhunt is the closest Simon Armitage could get to a form of war poetry as a man who has not fought in the war; the voice of this poem however is not a male soldier but a woman (Eddy's wife Laura).Laura was a nurse, who watched Eddy on the frontline and had to clean up the mess and never was able to intervene. She had fallen in love with a soldier and fulfilled every foundation of a relationship including intimacy but being able to touch him was so hard due to his memories of being shot through the cheek and having that bullet ricochet through him.
ReplyDeleteManhunt is about:
ReplyDelete- A women that has a husband who has been apart of the war (1st World War)
- They are close with one another
- She seems to become much closer to touch his scars when she is intimate with him
- She examines his facial injuries from a previous event
- She also looks at his colar bone and ribs ~ looking at the path this bullet fired at her husband had made
- She also sees the fractures and great agony her husband is in
- She tries to trace the bullet to the "source" (where it had originally been)
- She then glances at him noticing that his mind was preoccupied and trying to understand the abrupt nature of him (after the war as he has changed)
- But only seems to notice how his body has become very tensed and he seems like he has a everlasting burden constantly on his mind and never abating
- From this point this women can no longer read through her husband...
'Manhunt' is about a soldier who fought in the war and suffered from "cell shock". Armitage creates an image of a soldier fighting on the front line- except it is in a womans' point of view. The soldier suffered terrible injuries which the woman (healer) was trying to help him with. She sewed him up and talked to him- guiding his speech for him to express his feelings on his confused mind. This poem is based on a real life scenario and opinions/feelings of the people that were in the war, therefore it has its own persona.
ReplyDeleteI think this is what it is about anyway... :3
The poem "Man Hunt" is based upon a Channel 4 documentary about the toils of war, and looks at PTS (post traumatic stress). This particular poem focuses on the first time the partner of a wounded service can make physical contact with him after he was shot in the neck and had the bullet trapped in his body. While exploring the war torn body of her partner she notices the physical and mental pain he’s suffering due to the fighting. What’s more, as she looks at each detail of his body, she describes it making links to the military (“parachute silk of his punctured lung”, “fractured rudder of shoulder-blade”), as if it is now permanently part of his body and life. Towards the end she notices his mental pain, but rather than describing it as a piece of used or broken military equipment, she describes it as a weapon, “unexploded mine” and it’ll be only a matter of time before it is triggered and he will be put through even more pain, and he can’t escape the pain as it is now “buried deep in his mind”.
ReplyDeleteThe poem is about a woman that is laying with her husband that has returned from war and he is finally letting her touch him so now she's examining his scars.
ReplyDelete"The Manhunt" seems to be about many things. The one thing that's most prominent (to me, anyway)is the effect war and battle has on a person and their relationships with others. The emotionally and physically wounded man portrayed is so hurt that not only is he affected, but his wife is too. The wife is unable to fathom his misery and desperately and tenderly tries to do so and tries to help him reacquaint himself with the reality he most likely has condemned due to war and ultimately, to reacquaint both herself and her husband's self with his body through means of physical communication. Eventually she is able to, although very partially.
ReplyDeleteManhunt seems to interpret the idea of a man not only scarred and in pain on the outside but also on the inside as implied by the last stanza; "every nerve in his body had tightened and closed. Then and only then, did I come close." it implies an emotional connection is happening between two people as they are both giving and receiving. “Close” indicates that there is intimacy happening but it is not just physical; it also refers to a more soulful and understanding connection that happens through acceptance.
ReplyDelete“...the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,... and feel the hurt of his grazed heart.” designates the idea of a man being scarred physically but then that pain and wound is also part of his heart making it obvious that the man in the poem has gone through some type of war or fight. The persona comes from a woman. The opening stanza “after passionate nights and intimate days” indicates that it isn’t a first meeting which could mean this is some sort of girlfriend or wife and the man she is talking has been in war and maybe it has been hard for him to accept his injuries allowing her to touch him at that moment in the poem.
The poem is based on a solider injured by a bullet trough his face down to his body; but the narrative voice is his wife as she speaks about how she felt and how the injury affected both their lives
ReplyDeleteManhunt is about a women’s hunt to find the man that she ultimately used to know as his body seems to be a foreign place, a place which she was not used to. As before their relationship was passionate, intimate and warm however now the man seems aloof to every touch she places upon him. As when touched the man seems cold which does not give the impression of a steaming relationship but one which formerly had the flame burning but does not have now. Manhunt is ultimately about the effects of being in the army, the traumatic stress which causes people to be detached from the ones closest to them due to unforgiving memories which are not laid to rest but live with him forever and forever. Therefore this woman is feeling the full on effects of these everlasting memories due to the intimacy they now as a couple possess.
ReplyDeleteManhunt, I think, is a poem about a shell shocked veteran coming back from war; after being shot in the face. The bullet bounced around inside him, damaging various parts of his body.
ReplyDeleteAfter being treated and returned home, his wife was distressed at how she was not allowed to touch or tend to his wounds. The poem is about the first time she was allowed to feel him again.
When first reading the poem it seems to be about a man with some sort of insecurity. the poem speaks of a barrier between the wife and the husband which the wife is trying to surpass. When then taking this poem into context we learn that the poem is essentially the soldiers recovery from his mental and physical scars which he attained during the war, through the perspective of his wife who is seeing a very different man to who she had known
ReplyDeleteGreat work all- it is clear from this (and from today's lesson) that you have a strong understanding of this poem.
ReplyDelete^^ Indeed
Delete