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‘The Manhunt’ by Simon Armitage
Pre-reading activity:
1. How many conflicts can you think of that British soldiers have fought in
since 1995? Working with a partner, try to come up with at least four.
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2. What are your feelings about soldiers who are wounded in action?
3.  Explain your ideas fully.
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Semantic Fields
 Read the collection of words below. Do you notice any connections
between them? Can any of them be grouped together by their topic – in other
words, do they form a ‘semantic field’ of words which relate to similar things?
Highlight or colour-code the words to indicate any connections you can make.
scarred
bullet
intimate
fractured
ribs
broken
thumb
parachute
nerve
finger
search
heart
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foetus
source
rudder
lung
collar-bone
mine
face
Grazed
damaged
trace
shoulder-blade
River
explore
passionate
jaw
Punctured
First impressions
 Working on your own, read the list of words from the poem. What are
your first impressions? Make a note of your ideas. 
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Do any words grab your attention?
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Do any words seem to fall into more than one group?
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Which words have you found which do not seem to link to others?
What might be the significance of these?
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How would you classify the semantic fields you have found? Can
you draw any links between these different groupings?

What do you think the poem is going to be about?
Second impressions
 Now read the poem. What are your second impressions? Note ideas.
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What type of poem is this?
 Armitage uses a form of poetry called a dramatic monologue. The
speaker in the poem is not actually Armitage; he assumes a character. The
poem was written for a documentary called ‘Forgotten Heroes: The Not
Dead’, which explored the physical and mental damage soldiers can
experience.
In the documentary the poem was read by Laura, the wife of Eddie Beddoes,
a soldier who was wounded in the Bosnia peace-keeping mission of the
1990s. To some extent Armitage was trying to convey the experiences of
Laura as she looked after and tried to reconnect with her husband – but it is
Armitage’s take on her feelings, not her own poem.
 Write a short response to the information above. Does this information
about the poem affect how you respond to it when you read it? Should poets
try to explore feelings they have not experienced? Would the poem be of
more merit if Laura herself had written it?
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Poetry detectives
 Find examples (quotations) from the poem in the table below.
Poetic techniques and
devices
Examples
alliteration
assonance
metaphor
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verbs
repetition
sibilance
pleasant images
shocking images
narrative voice
Let’s take a closer look
Answer the following questions by providing quotes and analysis.
Stanza 1
What does the phrase ‘passionate nights and intimate days’ initially
1.
suggest the poem might be about?
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What other meanings could ‘passionate’ and ‘intimate’ bring, given the
2.
context of the rest of the poem?
Stanza 2
1.
What does ‘only then would he let me trace’ imply?
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What might the metaphor ‘the frozen river which ran through his face’
2.
be describing?
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What other meaning(s) could ‘frozen’ bring to the poem?
3.
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Stanza 3
1.
Why does the narrator use the word ‘explore’ – what connotations
does it bring?
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2.
The poem is broken up into two-line stanzas. Why do you think
Armitage has used this technique?
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3.
What meaning(s) does the phrase ‘blown hinge’ add to the poem?
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Stanzas 4-6
1.
Up to now, the couplets have been rhymed; why do you think that
Armitage doesn’t rhyme all of the couplets?
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2.
Is ‘porcelain’ a good word to describe his collar bone? Explain your
answer fully.
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3.
What’s the effect of Armitage’s use of repetition of words and style in
these stanzas?
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Stanza 7
1.
Armitage starts a new sentence in the poem here; why do you think he
does so?
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2.
How does this stanza suggest that the narrator is trying to help her
husband recover?
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Stanza 8
1.
What do you notice about the form of this stanza? Why might this be
important?
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Stanzas 9-10
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1.
Why does Armitage describe the bullet as a ‘foetus’?
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Stanzas 11-12
1.
What sorts of ‘scarring’ is the narrator talking about in these stanzas?
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2.
How effective is the metaphor of the ‘mine’ in his mind? What does
the description of it as ‘sweating’ suggest about him? How does it bring an
association of danger?
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Stanza 13
1.
What phrase suggests that the narrator is finding it hard to connect to
the man?
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‘Then, and only then, did I come close’: close to what?
2.
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3.
Look at the last words of each line of the couplet. What reasons can
you think of for Armitage choosing these? Hint: think about the idea of things
which are ‘missing’ or incomplete.
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How effective and appropriate is the poem’s title? Explain your ideas
4.
fully.
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My Itchy Toes Smell Loads
 Complete the table below with what you consider to be the
most important quotes and poetic devices within each
category.
meaning
imagery
tone
Structure
and Form
language
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Comparing poems
 Use the Venn diagram to find the differences and similarities between
the two poems.
‘The Manhunt’
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‘A Wife in London’
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