‘manhunt’ written by Simon Armitage

Introduction: In the poem ‘manhunt’ written by Simon Armitage, the poet uses form, structure and linguistic devices to convey the meaning of the poem. As the title of the poem suggests, the poem is written from the perspective a woman trying to find the person her husband was once, before he got injured.
This poem explaines how War can cause Physical, emotional and psychological pain and how that can affect an intimate relationship.
Structure: 13 stanzas of couplets each with irregular rhyme and rythm, which emphasises how mixed up and irregular their lives are as a result of the war.
Structure: The poet also uses structure effectively to convey the meaning of the poem. As he introduces Different injuries in each couplet.
Structure: The reader explores the husband’s body and mind the same way the wife has done. Each stanza consists of only two lines, this could represent how carefully the wife has to be around the husband in order not to hurt him, or to trigger a horrific memory of the past. The repetition of ‘and’ in several stanzas shows that this is an active process and only can the wife try and help her husband a little. The repetition of ‘only then…’ suggests the slow painstaking process of trying to mend his wounds.
Language: Armitage uses imagery effectively to portray the meaning of the poem, this is done by the use of metaphors , ‘the damaged, porcelain collar-bone’ this quote is saying how precious his collar bone is, and how breakable it is. The ‘porcelain’ emphasises how fragile her husband is and how careful she has to be around him.The poet cleverly uses a recount style that allows the speaker to reflect on her relationship with her husband. Evidence to support this is when she speaks of "the frozen river that ran through his face" the use of metaphors is powerful and emotive and highlights her feeling at this time.‘The parachute silk of his punctured lung’ is another metaphor used to describe the man’s injuries. Parachutes are used in military, a punctured parachute will be useless as it will not do its job. This could suggest that the man is now, in this state, no use as he feels nothing, againg going back to ‘the frozen river which ran through his face’ indicating everything has stopped and not moving - he has no emotions.

My personal Opinion: In conclusion this poem makes me feel sympathetic because of their situation. A quote to support this is: "the hurt of his grazed heart" which conveys pain to the reader.