The Manhunt by Simon Armitage

Annotations:

• Context- Born 1963 PTSD Studied geography Autobiographical

1. Context
   1. Born 1963
   2. Studied Geography
   3. Worked as Probation officer
   4. Raises strong concerns for social issues
   5. PTSD
2. About
   1. Written from perspective of the wife of a soldier who has injuries at war and has returned home a different person.
   2. Poem explores physical and mental effects living with an injury.
3. Structure
   1. Series of couplets mostly unrhymed creates a sense of fragmentation -matched feelings of wife as she has to understand who her husband has become
4. Language
   1. The title puns on the idea of the 'manhunt', meaning literally a hunt to capture a man, often a criminal. Here the wife's search is for the husband she knew so well but who seems lost to her, metaphorically, after his experiences at war.
   2. Many of the first lines of the couplets have prominent verbs, reflecting the activities of the wife as she conducts her "search".
      1. Words and phrases like "explore", "handle and hold", "mind and attend"
         1. are all references to careful treatment of her husband's injured body, as well as suggesting her patient care for his mental state.
5. Themes and ideas
   1. About patience and care of love, poem is methodical, exploring her husbands injured body with love and care.
   2. Cost of war on those serving in the armed forces.
6. Key quotes
   1. Frozen river which ran through his face
   2. Passionate nights and intimate days
   3. The blown hinge of his lower jaw
   4. The Parachute silk of his punctured lung
   5. Grazed heart
   6. Buried deep in his mind
   7. Then and only then did I come close