The Manhunt by Simon Armitage- In-depthAnalysis

In The Manhunt, Armitage takes typical blazon love poetry and turns it into a negative,perverse form of blazon poetry through a combination of metaphorical language andlanguage from the semantic field of warfare. The persona speaks in third person which isunusual, and seems to be addressing the reader rather than the subject of the poem.

'After the first phase,

after passionate nights and intimate days,'

The 'first phase' seems to suggest that this 'Manhunt' of trying to find the man that thepersona once knew was carried out in a series of phases and that the sexual intimacyin the rebuilding of their relationship was merely only the beginning. This is strangebecause usually a relationship begins with getting to know each other then having a sexualrelationship, but in this poem it seems to be the other way around. As the 'first phase'compromised of 'passionate nights and intimate days'.

'only then would he let me trace

the frozen river that ran through his face,'

'only then' seems to suggest that this 'hunt' was carried out in small steps with the persona'spartner's consent 'let me'. The 'frozen river' may be interpreted as scarring from his timein the war, or perhaps even tear tracks to explain the emotional trauma he may be goingthrough and the metaphor used 'frozen river that ran through his face' gives imagery oflandscapes, bumpy terrain.

'only then would he let me explore

the blown hinge of his lower jaw,'

Again, the repetition of 'only then would he let me' seems to suggest that the persona is notforcing her way through, but allowing her partner to slowly open up and 'let me'. The verb'explore' seems very thorough, the persona doesn't want to miss anything. Armitage usesa strong adjective 'blown' to describe the persona's partner's jaw. The 'blown hinge of hislower jaw' seems to be used by Armitage in a figurative way, perhaps showing the 'man's'inability to express his emotions, or perhaps his refusal to speak about them, maybe hewants to lock his feelings away, to forget. Also 'hinge' brings up imagery of doors so if adoor has a 'blown hinge' then it would be impossible to open.

'and handle and hold

The damaged, porcelain collar-bone,'

The verbs 'handle and hold' seem to be very gentle, this is due to the alliteration of the soft 'h'sound. The persona gently 'handles and holds' her partner's collar-bone. The metaphoricallanguage of the persona's 'porcelain collar-bone' by Armitage is effective in conveying thepersona's care with her partner as 'porcelain' is very delicate and easily 'damaged'. Takenotice here that in the first three stanzas, 'phase' and 'days', 'trace' and 'face', 'explore' and'jaw' Armitage uses rhyming couplets however in this stanza Armitage begins to slowly splitoff into half rhyme as the persona moves from surface injuries to deeper injuries as the'collar bone' is inside and cannot be explored from a skin-deep relationship.

'and mind and attend

the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,'

Armitage, uses the metaphor 'fractured rudder' to describe the 'shoulder blade', rudders areused to steer boats if the 'rudder' is broken then the boat has no direction which suggeststhat the persona's partner is lost and also has no direction, he needs guidance. Armitageuses the adjective 'fractured' as a fracture is deeper than a sprain or cut which suggeststhat it will take longer to fix, heal. Note the repetition of the 'd' sound which is repeated atthe end of every word on the first line and used frequently on the second and the 't' sounds,these make the lines sound very harsh and abrupt, which presents strong feelings by thepersona, perhaps feelings of frustration.

'and finger and thumb

the parachute silk of his punctured lung.'

The verbs 'finger and thumb' are very cautious, gentle, the persona doesn't use her wholehand. Armitage describes the 'lung' as 'parachute silk' , 'silk' is a very soft delicate materialand the soft s and l and pronunciation of the 'ch' sound as 'sh' in 'parachute silk' emphasisethis. This also brings up vivid war imagery of soldiers falling from planes using parachutesto help them land softly. However 'punctured' disrupts these soft sounds, a very harsh 'p','c' and 't'. The fact that this 'parachute' is now 'punctured' suggests that he is falling fastnow with nothing to help him land softly, it is a long hard fall. Also, the idea that his 'lung' is'punctured' gives the impression that he finds it hard to survive day to day after his returnfrom conflict (possibly due to trauma) as 'lungs' are vital to our survival they helps us tobreathe and hold air, just like a 'parachute' inflates and holds in air. Also, note the first fullstop in the poem placed just before the persona dives in deeper.

'Only then could I bind the struts

and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,'

Armitage once again reminds us of the slow and gradual pace at which the persona iscarrying out this 'Manhunt' by the repetition of 'only then'. The use of the modal auxilary verb'could' suggests that this was something that the persona was unable to do before, due toher partner's refusal to let her closer, but now she 'can' and this is just another step forwardin their relationship. The imagery here is of a steel structure due to the words 'struts' and'rungs'.The persona is slowly getting deeper and deeper and mending as much as she canduring the journey as she 'binds the struts'. The word 'bind' brings up imagery of bandagesand aid. Armitage is showing a path of destruction and the fact that the 'ribs' are 'broken'suggests that something managed to get through this protective barrier to the heart, laterwe learn that this is a bullet ('foetus of metal') which has ricocheted through his body. Also,note here that the half rhyme has completely broken into no rhyme (can't think of any reasonwhy here, feel free to give suggestions)

'and feel the hurt

of his grazed heart.'

The persona has finally managed to reach her partner's heart. There is a light hearted toneconveyed here by Armitage, where the previous adjectives were all very harsh, here theadjective used is 'grazed' which gives the impression that the physical wound isn't verydeep and will heal quickly. Also, the idea that the bullet which just missed the heart and therelief that the persona feels is also expressed here. Armitage reverts back to half rhyme'hurt' and 'heart' as things begin to come together. A full stop is used here which marksanother phase as the persona goes deeper to discover the real root of her partner's pain.

'Skirting along

only then could I picture the scan,'

Here Armitage uses the verb 'skirting' which gives the impression that the persona is beingvery cautious so as not to hurt her partner further. Unusually, 'only then' is used at thestart of the second stanza rather than the first, but here 'only then could I picture' seemsto suggest that the persona's inability to do this previously was not because of a lack ofconsent from her partner but rather due to an inability to understand, to 'picture' the hurtthat her partner feels and how deep it runs, this realisation is also emphasised through theabsence of the rhyming couplets once more. Imagery of hospitals and PET, CAT scans arealso conveyed here.

'the foetus of metal beneath his chest

where the bullet had finally come to rest.'

The metaphorical language, 'foetus of metal' to describe the 'bullet' is effective in conveyingthe growth of the persona's partner's pain as the word 'foetus' is often associated with new

life and growth and that the 'foetus' has been growing beneath his chest. Armitage uses afull stop after the word 'rest' to once again mark a new 'phase' in 'The Manhunt'. The word'finally' also gives a sense of closure as the persona reaches the end of the 'path of physicaldestruction' taken by the bullet. The bullet could also itself be a metaphor for pain, just asthe 'blown jaw' , 'broken ribs' and 'punctured lungs' could be metaphorical for other things( or they could be interpreted literally as old wounds perhaps?) Armitage continues with hisrhyming couplets as the search goes on 'chest' and 'rest'.

'Then I widened the search,

traced the scarring back to its source'

The use of the sequence connector 'then' shows that the search isn't over as the personamay have found all the 'scarring' (her partners inability to express his feelings 'blown jaw',difficulty in surviving day to day 'punctured lung' etc.) caused by the 'bullet' (pain) but stilldoes not know the source of the pain. So she traces 'the scarring back to its source'.

Armitage diverts from his usual use of punctuation, using a comma at the end of the firstline of the stanza rather than the second, the enjambment used after 'source' shows thecontinuation of the journey. As Armitage nears the 'source' he begins to divert from rhymeonce again using the half-rhyme of 'source' and 'search'.

'to a sweating, unexploded mine

buried deep in his mind, around which'

The persona arrives at the 'source' of her partner's pain, which is 'buried deep in his mind'which implies some type of psychological injury, 'post traumatic stress disorder' perhaps.The metaphorical language used here 'mine' to describe the bundle of emotions andmemories 'buried' away is once again from the semantic field of warfare. The use of theverb 'sweating' is very effective in giving the impression that this 'mine' is close to burstingpoint and seems to personalise the 'mine' as if it were alive and the adjective 'unexploded'shows that the 'mine' is still active and the pain and emotion has had a long time to build up,so when the 'sweating' 'mine' does explode it will be severe. The persona finds the 'source'and no rhyme is used 'mine' and 'which'. Armitage again uses enjambment to lead onto thelast stanza and guide the reader's eyes.

'every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.

Then, and only then, did I come close.'

The fact that 'every nerve in his body' dedicated itself to hiding away this 'mine' suggeststhat the wound (the post traumatic stress disorder caused by the conflict) hurt so much that'his body' 'buried' it away. The use of the punctuation in this stanza is also skewed, the fullstops after the verb 'closed' and the word 'close' add meaning literally to 'closed' as they

give a sense of closure. The repetition of the sequence connector 'then' and the words 'onlythen' are effective in showing the final last step of 'The Manhunt' as the persona finds whatshe is looking for.

This line holds a hint of sadness, by grouping together the words 'Then, and only then'Armitage is suggesting that this occurred only once, the repetition of 'then' suggests thatthis 'only' happened that one time, that only this one time the persona was able to 'comeclose'. Note the word 'close', the fact that the persona was only able to get 'near' to thecause of the pain, but not to cure it adds to the sadness of the line. So the half rhyme ofthe words 'close'and 'closed' could be interpreted as the continuation of 'The Manhunt' asthe persona continues to try and get 'close' to her partner long after 'only then' and longafter the end of the poem.

But the word 'close' could also be interpreted as 'close' (not 'near'), but like 'only then did Icome to a close' which would give a different atmosphere to the poem, as one of closureand happiness, and the part 'then, and only then' could be interpreted as only after all thesethings had been accomplished could the persona come 'to a close' and just, rest.