Remains – what meanings could this word have? ‘Remains’ by Simon Armitage

Reflection time Look back at the comments within your books Correct any SPAG issues Answer any questions Complete your WOW comment Look back at your previous poetry target in preparation for continuing the poetry unit.

The author Simon Armitage was born in Yorkshire in 1963 This poem is taken from the collection entitled ‘The Not Dead’. The material for his poetry collection comes from interviews with ex soldiers which were part of a Channel 4 film with the same title. Armitage’s role was to listen to the soldiers’ stories and turn them into poems. In his introduction to the collections he says that for a lot of the soldiers, being in the film meant that they had to relive terrible experiences. To capture this feeling, many of the poems in the collection revolve around a ‘flashback’ of a bad memory.

Reading the poem Which of these terms are the most appropriate to describe the feelings of the soldier now? Arrange the words into a diamond shape with the most suitable at the top. Fear, guilt, horror, resentment, disgust, shock, remorse, depression, helplessness.

Diamond 9 Once you have made your decision, compare with another pair – do you agree? Why/not? For each of the three words at the top of your diamond, find a phrases in the poem to support this.

Exploring the poem What images are the most poignant within the poem? choose the line or phrase which you find most striking . Which part of the poem was chosen most often? Why? Conversely, which part of the poem wasn’t chosen very often? Again, investigate possible reasons for this. If you could meet the person who “voices this poem”, the narrator, what questions would you want to ask him?

Socratic circle ‘inner circle’ – those in the inner circle will be discussing the poem (interesting aspects, themes, ideas, poet’s feelings etc) ‘outer circle’ – those in the outer circle will be watching and observing adding notes to your poem with interesting observations.

Who is the speaker of the poem? How does this effect the meaning and the way we understand the poem?

Group Work In groups of 4, you are going to perform the poem – think carefully about the message of the poem and what Armitage is trying to say.

Plenary