The Manhunt

The Manhunt

1. Context

   • Laura's poem - Laura is the wife of Eddie Beddoes, a soldier who served as peace-keeper in Bosnia before being discharged due to injury + depression

2. The Manhunt

   • an intensive search for a person
     • negative connotation - victim/ criminal

3. After the first phase, After passionate nights and intimate days,

   • misleading - seems to be about a health + passionate relationship
   • life the first stage of a relationship- metaphorically true as the man is so broken + changed + he is not the man she married
   • contradict rest of poem - like relationship, they don't fit together

4. only then would he let me trace the frozen river which ran through his face

   • metaphor of 'frozen river'- something unable to do what it is designed to do. unable to function
     • frozen - stuck, unable to escape from his position/feelings
     • river - depth + veracity to his feelings

5. only then would he let me explore the blown hinge of his lower jaw,

   • 'only then' repetition + short verses - show tiny amounts of progress being made
   • unable to talk to her
   • blown hinge - a flexible attachment which allows things to open or shut
     • mentally unhinged - dangerous, volatile, unpredictable
     • unable to function - can't be a soldier (been discharged) + can't be a husband (can't love + protect wife)
     • unable to open up/ communicate

6. and mind and attend the factor rudder of shoulder-blade,

   • rudder - device used to steer a ship
     • unable to function - stuck, static, unable to move forward

7. Only then could I bind the struts and climb the rungs of his broken ribs

   • turn in poem - wife trying to mend him, sees it as her role

8. and feel the hurt of his grazed heart.

   • soft gentle sounds - softness of intimacy + emotion
     • emotional pain + damage
   • feel - starts to feel, understand his pain, empathise with how he is feeling

9. Skirting along, only then could I picture the scan, the foetus of metal beneath his chest where the bullet had finally come to rest.

   • the bullet is like a foetus - it is inside of you, it grows + develops
     • metaphor - that bullet + wound will grow + develop + continue to grow + cause more impact on soldier

10. Then I widened the search, traced the scarring back to its source

    • 'widened the search' - manhunt, reminds us of importance of title, hostile + negative imagery reflects hostility in man

11. Then, and only then, did I come close.

    • AMBIGUITY - after long time of little steps trying to put him back together + work through his pain...
      • close to each other, bonded + united again
      • close to understanding him, didn't fully emphasise, understand or find him, but was nearly there

12. and handle and hold the damaged, porcelain collar-bone

    • delicate ceramic - soldier is delicate, soft + easy to break

13. and finger and thumb the parachute silk of his punctured lung

    • parachute - military, broken parachute - unable to function
    • silk - delicate, soft side

14. to a sweating, unexploded mine buried deep in his mind, around which every nerve in his body had tightened and closed

    • cause of all his pain, deep emotional root, is unexplored mine
    • mine - if you get too close it will be dangerous, if you touch it you can't let go because you'll blow up