A01 (12 marks) A02 (12 marks) A03 (6 marks) Clear and intelligent interpretation of the poems Clear and precise comparison of the poems Select a wide range of quotations which justify your points A02 (12 marks) Analyse the poets’ use of language Analyse the poets’ use of structure Clearly explain the effects on the reader Use subject specific terminology A03 (6 marks) Relate the poems to their historical and social contexts

What is Armitage’s ‘Remains’ about? Knowledge Armitage wrote this poem after interviewing a soldier who served in the first war in Iraq. Skills: Close reading of the poem, focussed on meaning and content. Understanding: Annotate your anthology to demonstrate your understanding.

Listen to Armitage reading the poem here. On another occasion, we got sent out to tackle looters raiding a bank. And one of them legs it up the road, probably armed, possibly not. Well myself and somebody else and somebody else are all of the same mind, so all three of us open fire. Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear I see every round as it rips through his life – I see broad daylight on the other side. So we’ve hit this looter a dozen times and he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out, pain itself, the image of agony. One of my mates goes by and tosses his guts back into his body. Then he’s carted off in the back of a lorry. End of story, except not really. His blood-shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol I walk right over it week after week. Then I’m home on leave. But I blink and he bursts again through the doors of the bank. Sleep, and he’s probably armed, and possibly not. Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds. And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out – he’s here in my head when I close my eyes, dug in behind enemy lines, not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land or six-feet-under in desert sand, but near to the knuckle, here and now, his bloody life in my bloody hands. Listen to Armitage reading the poem here. Read the poem over yourselves, and listen to Armitage read it. Discuss it on your tables/in groups and decide what you think it’s about. The actual ‘narrative’ is quite straightforward: really try to interpret the message Armitage is offering us about power, conflict, war, guilt etc. The poem is based on the account of a British soldier who served in Iraq! A01 Clear and intelligent interpretation of the poems Select a wide range of quotations which justify your points

How is Armitage’s ‘Remains’ written? Knowledge Language devices and structure are how Armitage crafts his poem for impact. He uses lots of graphic imagery. Skills: Close reading of the poem, focussed on language and structure. Understanding: Annotate your anthology to demonstrate your understanding.

Identify and analyse the purpose and effect of: Graphic violent imagery Repetition Sibilance Metaphors A02 Analyse the poets’ use of language Clearly explain the effects on the reader Use subject specific terminology

“His blood-shadow stays on the street” Literally, metaphorically, symbolically… “His blood-shadow stays on the street” Literally, the dead Iraqi has bled all over the street. It shows how vicious and violent it was. Metaphorically, the idea is that what the soldier has done stays with him and he can still remember it. His memory is stained, just as the street was. Symbolically, it’s about how this happens to all soldiers after all wars – they can’t forget what they’ve done.

“dug in behind enemy lines” Thursday October 19th 2017 Literally, metaphorically, symbolically… “dug in behind enemy lines” “the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out” “his bloody life on my bloody hands” “three of a kind all letting fly” “some distant sun-stunned sand-smothered land”

Good points Areas to develop Love the playful use of ‘remain’ as a textual detail Forgot the word ‘literally’ Good coverage of metaphorical/symbolic meanings Could have discussed repetition of the adjective ‘bloody’ and its effect

Good points Areas to develop Clearly follows the structure Spellings are a concern, and it isn’t written as a coherent paragraph Excellent range of comments: particularly in the ‘metaphorically…’ section

Good points Areas to develop Clearly structured Introduce the quotation properly: Armitage says of the looter being chucked in the lorry, “end of story, except not really.” Use of “although” to introduce different perspectives

Good points Areas to develop Well contextualised Engage more with language, e.g. harsh consonance of ‘drink and drugs’ and its effect Clearly structured

Why was Armitage’s ‘Remains’ written? Knowledge Armitage is passing judgement on the war in Iraq – as well as war in general – and the impact it has on the soldiers once the war is over. Skills: Link contextual factors to textual details. Understanding: Annotate your anthology to demonstrate your understanding.

The first 4 stanzas tell the story of what happened The first 4 stanzas tell the story of what happened. The final 4 tell the reader about the consequences. There is a clear pattern of stanzas of 4 lines (quatrains) but the eighth and final stanza is only 2 lines long. The reader is expecting one thing but given another. The final stanza seems to have been ‘cut short’ prematurely. What might Armitage be saying about the Iraq conflict? A02 Analyse the poets’ use of structure Use subject specific terminology A03 Relate the poems to their historical and social contexts

How are ‘Remains’ and ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ similar? Knowledge Both poets use stanza length to convey something. Skills: Make connections between the two poems. Understanding: Write a fifteen minute essay response to the comparison question.

Compare how the lengths of the stanzas reveals something about the nature of conflict in ‘Remains’ and in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. A01 Clear and precise comparison of the poems