Remains - Simon Armitage

What is the main idea of the poem?

• The main idea of the poem is the story of the soldier dreaming of when he gets home from war

• The main idea of the poem is the soldier enjoying killing in the war

• The main idea of the poem is the lasting trauma and guilt that a soldier experiences after killing a looter

• The main idea of the poem is the soldier robbing someone

How does the narrator’s attitude toward the looter change throughout the story?

• The narrator’s attitude towards the looter starts off with him not wanting to kill him and ends with him happy that he has done.

• The narrator’s attitude towards the looter starts off positive but then becomes negative.

• The narrator’s attitude towards the looter starts off with him hating him, but then he changes to guilt.

• The narrator’s attitude towards the looter starts off impersonal and detached, but becomes more personal and guilty as he continues to think about the incident.

Identify two examples of personification in the text.

• "Well myself and somebody else and somebody else" and "but near to the knuckle, here and now,"

• "And one of them legs it up the road," and "One of my mates goes by"

• “his blood-shadow stays on the street” and “the city ticks him off for good.”

• "not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land" and

  "Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds."

What is the volta in the last stanza?

• The volta in the last stanza shifts the focus from the man who has been shot to the soldier.

• The volta in the last stanza shifts the focus from the soldier who has killed the looter to the man that he has shot and killed.

• The volta in the last stanza shifts the focus from the physical description of the looter’s death to the speaker’s emotional and psychological state.

• The volta in the last stanza shifts the focus from when the soldier is shooting him and the experience of him and the other soldiers shooting someone to after he has shot him and the man is dying.

Identify the caesura in the second stanza.

• The caesura in the second stanza is located after the word “mind”

• The caesura in the second stanza is located after the word "fly"

• The caesura in the second stanza is located after the word "fire"

• There is no caesura in the second stanza.

Identify an example of colloquial language in the text.

• “legs it up the road.”

• "I see broad daylight on the other side."

• "his bloody life in my bloody hands."

• "Then I’m home on leave"

Identify an example of imagery in the fifth stanza.

• blood-shadow

• End of story

• Then I’m home on leave

• I walk right over it