1. Remains by Simon Armitage
Bronze
Can you find examples of casual conversational language? What’s the effect of writing about this event in this style?
Select the three most powerful images of violence. Identify and language devices and explain their effect.
Select 4 powerful verbs throughout the poem. How do they convey the ideas in the poem?
Which line fills you with the most sympathy for the soldier?
Can you identify and explain the use of present tense in the first two stanzas?
In Lines find the X3 verbs to show he can’t escape from the events.
Silver
Read the opening line and consider the effect. What’s the link here with ‘Bayonet Charge’?
Can you find two examples of alliteration and explain how and why they are used?
Consider the ambiguity and alternative interpretation of the title ‘Remains’ and the use of ‘bloody’ at the end.
Can you find examples of language used to dehumanize the victim? What does this show us about the effect of violence on the soldier.
Identify and explain the metaphor used in stanza 5 to show he’s going over events in his mind.
Gold
Identify and explain the effect of the shift from using ‘We’ (1st person plural pronoun) to ‘I’ (1st person singular pronoun)
What’s the effect of the caesura (full stop mid line) in line 20?
Can you identify and explain the metaphor in stanza 5 to show he cannot escape the guilt of the events?
Structure: investigate the rhyme, rhythm and sentence length in the poem and consider why Armitage has used this style. Then look at the final 2 lines and consider the reason for the difference here.
In line 27 select the interesting adjectives which show the conflict has effected both the literal external landscape and the metaphorical internal landscape of his mind.