The Manhunt

The Manhunt

Context
1. 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
The Manhunt
1. an intensive search for a person
  1. negative connotation - victim/ criminal
After the first phase, After passionate nights and intimate days,
1. misleading - seems to be about a health + passionate relationship
2. life the first stage of a relationship- metaphorically true as the man is so broken + changed + he is not the man she married
3. contradict rest of poem - like relationship, they don't fit together
only then would he let me trace the frozen river which ran through his face
1. metaphor of 'frozen river'- something unable to do what it is designed to do. unable to function
  1. frozen - stuck, unable to escape from his position/feelings
  2. river - depth + veracity to his feelings
only then would he let me explore the blown hinge of his lower jaw,
1. 'only then' repetition + short verses - show tiny amounts of progress being made
2. unable to talk to her
3. blown hinge - a flexible attachment which allows things to open or shut
  1. mentally unhinged - dangerous, volatile, unpredictable
  2. unable to function - can't be a soldier (been discharged) + can't be a husband (can't love + protect wife)
  3. unable to open up/ communicate
and mind and attend the factor rudder of shoulder-blade,
1. rudder - device used to steer a ship
  1. unable to function - stuck, static, unable to move forward
Only then could I bind the struts and climb the rungs of his broken ribs
1. turn in poem - wife trying to mend him, sees it as her role
and feel the hurt of his grazed heart.
1. soft gentle sounds - softness of intimacy + emotion
  1. emotional pain + damage
2. feel - starts to feel, understand his pain, empathise with how he is feeling
Skirting along, only then could I picture the scan, the foetus of metal beneath his chest where the bullet had finally come to rest.
1. the bullet is like a foetus - it is inside of you, it grows + develops
  1. metaphor - that bullet + wound will grow + develop + continue to grow + cause more impact on soldier
Then I widened the search, traced the scarring back to its source
1. 'widened the search' - manhunt, reminds us of importance of title, hostile + negative imagery reflects hostility in man
Then, and only then, did I come close.
1. AMBIGUITY - after long time of little steps trying to put him back together + work through his pain...
  1. close to each other, bonded + united again
  2. close to understanding him, didn't fully emphasise, understand or find him, but was nearly there
and handle and hold the damaged, porcelain collar-bone
1. delicate ceramic - soldier is delicate, soft + easy to break
and finger and thumb the parachute silk of his punctured lung
1. parachute - military, broken parachute - unable to function
2. silk - delicate, soft side
to a sweating, unexploded mine buried deep in his mind, around which every nerve in his body had tightened and closed
1. cause of all his pain, deep emotional root, is unexplored mine
2. mine - if you get too close it will be dangerous, if you touch it you can't let go because you'll blow up

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	Created by Alice Love about 9 years ago