Remains

Poet

TED HUGHES

Context

• Modern warfare; wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and others in the East.
• Soldiers are posted in communities where they have to act as judge and determine who is a threat.
• Soldiers have to make split-second decisions which affect the rest of their lives.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common mental health problem that troubles the lives of ex-service men and women.

Plot

• The speaker relays an experience he had when posted in an Eastern country.
• He shot a man who was raiding a bank.
• He remembers each bullet as it passed through the target’s body.
• After the incident, he revisits the scene, either for work or personal reasons.
• His memories plague him and he is sent home on compassionate leave.
• He turns, unsuccessfully, to substance abuse to try to numb the guilt.

Form

• Monologue
• Sequential
• Enjambment
• Caesura

Structure

• Loose internal rhymes
• Eight stanzas
• Finale is a couplet

Language

• Alliteration
• Repetition
• Metaphor
• Onomatopoeia
• Sibilance
• Possessive
• Expletive
• Graphic imagery

Tone

• Casual
• Patriotic
• Desensitised
• Guilt
• Frustration

Themes

• Power of humans
• Power of nature
• Power of memory
• War
• Death
• P.T.S.D.
• First hand experience