SOURCE TEXT:
Remains

On another occasion, we get sent out
to tackle looters raiding a bank.
And one of them legs it up the road,
probably armed, possibly not.

Well myself and somebody else and somebody else
are all of the same mind,
so all three of us open fire.
Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear

I see every round as it rips through his life –
I see broad daylight on the other side.
So we’ve hit this looter a dozen times
and he’s there on the ground, sort of inside out,

pain itself, the image of agony.
One of my mates goes by
and tosses his guts back into his body.
Then he’s carted off in the back of a lorry.

End of story, except not really.
His blood-shadow stays on the street, and out on patrol
I walk right over it week after week.
Then I’m home on leave. But I blink

and he bursts again through the doors of the bank.
Sleep, and he’s probably armed, possibly not.
Dream, and he’s torn apart by a dozen rounds.
And the drink and the drugs won’t flush him out –

he’s here in my head when I close my eyes,
dug in behind enemy lines,
not left for dead in some distant, sun-stunned, sand-smothered land
or six-feet-under in desert sand,

but near to the knuckle, here and now,
his bloody life in my bloody hands.

Simon Armitage

QUESTIONS:
Compare how poets present the ways people are affected by difficult experiences in 'Remains' and in one other poem from 'Power and conflict'.

1. **Introduction:** Choose your second poem (e.g., 'War Photographer'). State the main similarity (e.g., both explore the lasting psychological trauma of war) and a key difference (e.g., 'Remains' focuses on the guilt of a perpetrator, while 'War Photographer' focuses on the trauma of a witness). 2. **Paragraph 1 (Psychological Impact):** Analyse how 'Remains' shows the soldier is affected. Focus on the colloquial language that breaks down ('sort of inside out'), the graphic imagery ('rips through his life'), and the cyclical nature of his PTSD ('week after week'). Then, analyse the psychological impact in 'War Photographer', focusing on the contrast between the 'rural England' and the 'fields which don't explode' and the photographer's internal turmoil. 3. **Paragraph 2 (Memory and Guilt):** Compare how memory haunts the speakers. In 'Remains', the memory is inescapable ('here in my head'), leading to self-destructive behaviour ('the drink and the drugs'). In 'War Photographer', the memories develop like photographs in his darkroom, a more controlled but equally painful process. Discuss the sense of guilt in 'Remains' ('his bloody life in my bloody hands') and the sense of responsibility and helplessness in 'War Photographer'. 4. **Paragraph 3 (Structure and Form):** Compare the structures. 'Remains' starts in media res ('On another occasion') and has a conversational, anecdotal feel, but the structure breaks down towards the end, reflecting the speaker's mental state. 'War Photographer' has a very rigid, controlled structure (four sestets with a regular rhyme scheme), which contrasts with the chaotic and horrific subject matter, perhaps reflecting the photographer's attempt to impose order on his experiences. 5. **Conclusion:** Summarise your comparative points. Conclude on the overall message each poet conveys about the effects of difficult experiences. Both Armitage and Duffy suggest that the psychological scars of conflict are profound and lasting, affecting individuals long after they have left the battlefield.