remains

Question 1

stanza 1:
“Probably armed, possibly not”

Answer 1

• heightens the writer’s paranoia
• destabilises his mental state

Question 2

stanza 1:
“legs it up the road”

Answer 2

• colloquial language
• suggests haste
• however, this is described in a serious way, suggesting that these are every day occurrences for soldiers

Question 3

stanza 2:
“somebody else”

Answer 3

• vague language
• he is hiding the identities of the soldiers because he knows what he did wrong
• alternative, he is not aware of what is going on around him, he has no plan or sense of collaborationsta

Question 4

stanza 2:
“same mind”

Answer 4

• shows how he is to blame for his actions when followed by the repetition of “all”
• alternatively, shows that soldiers conditioned to act violently and
  actually not to think for themselves

Question 5

stanza 2:
“all three of us open fire”

Answer 5

• Literary allusion to ‘The Three Musketeers’, skilled and
  heroic
• this allusion is being used ironically as they are
  anything but heroic

Question 6

stanza 3:
“I see”

Answer 6

• repetition
• the visual horror is conveyed
• use of present tense showing us that he continues to relive it

Question 7

stanza 3:
“rip”

Answer 7

• violent language
• rip also mean rest in peace which suggests this man is dead

Question 8

stanza 3:
“sort of inside out”

Answer 8

• vague language , childish
• he can’t comprehend the human mess in front of him

Question 9

stanza 4:
“carted off in the back of a lorry”

Answer 9

• dehumanises the looter
• makes him sound like a worthless piece of rubbish

Question 10

stanza 4:
“tossed his guts”

Answer 10

• careless, colloquial, shows how human life is treated with little care
• highlighting how soldiers are desensitized

Question 11

stanza 4:
“pain. Agony … guts”

Answer 11

• Lexical field of visceral suffering
• talking about himself as well as looter

Question 12

stanza 5:
“Blood-shadow”

Answer 12

• Gothic language
• metaphor of shadow shadow always follows, never leaves you
• showing persona is constantly haunted by what he has done

Question 13

stanza 5:
“Very long line”

Answer 13

• shows horror and trauma that he is suffering is forever lingering

Question 14

what does the enjambment between stanza 5 and 6 show?

Answer 14

• this guilt/trauma is constantly following him from stanza to stanza

Question 15

stanza 6:
“probably armed, and possibly not”

Answer 15

• questioning his actions, the syndetic creates more of a pause
• couples with “flush”, metaphor of toilet, idea of how toxic his thoughts are