Last person who posts here wins

[Anarchisticstan]

hey babygrill

[LiberzanEmpire]

What would you do if you saw me at the red light…

[Anarchisticstan]

roooooxanne... yudonhevtoputontheredlait

[BowShot118]

Liberalism ftw

[kyorgia]

[Giangsang]

[LiberzanEmpire]

i have arachnophobia

[Anarchisticstan]

In 'Remains', as the poem progresses the speaker goes through the realisation that their killing of the looter was predominantly their own fault, leading to the development of guilt hence trauma. When faced with the consequence of killing the looter, the speaker immediately turns into denial of his act, remarking the looter was 'probably armed, possibly not'. The equal number of syllables highlights how the probability of the looter being dangerous was 50/50, and the speaker may be subtly blaming the military training he was placed in: soldiers are expected to consider the worst case scenario, justifying his killing.
Self-aware that his thought is wrong, he then dilutes his guilt onto his entire squad, into himself 'and somebody else and somebody else'. Here the use of repetition makes the sentence dominated by the 'somebody else', as if diverging attention away from his wrongdoings. He is perhaps deceiving himself in order to run away from the truth, or alternatively implying that since the other soldiers were 'all of the same mind', his action would not have mattered in the end as the looter's fate was sealed, therefore his sin is not as grave.
However, he is then left to watch as the body is shot, saying 'I see every round as it rips through his life' and 'I see broad daylight'. The use of anaphora starts to establish the theme of guilt, as it alludes to the repeated traumatic flashbacks that PTSD sufferers often have. Not only is the thought flashing before the speaker's mind, but he describes the body as 'sort of inside out' implying there is no word to convey how macabre it is.
The guilt of the speaker affected his mental wellbeing negatively, as he says 'the drink and drugs won't flush him out [referring to the looter]'. Flushing something out means it is unclean and filthy, so in this line it is implied that the soldier has been rendered unclean by the weight of his actions. The reference to drugs is quite dramatic, and Armitage could be highlighting this in order to convey how soldiers have to resort to physical self-destruction in order to run from their trauma; they are unable to cope with it normally.
At first the speaker was using everyday language such as 'legs it up' in a military setting, but having realised his fault, he starts to use military language in everyday settings, for example describing the 'blood-shadow' 'dug in behind enemy lines'. This conveys how the trauma is carried onto his daily life, affecting it. This is then reinforced by the description of 'sun-stunned, sand-smothered land'. The 'sun' and 'sand' connote positive imagery of beach locations, however the succeeding suffixes 'stunned' and 'smothered' turn the image into a negative one. This implies that because of his guilt, the soldier is not able to enjoy what a normal person would, perhaps because he has taken away the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of nature from a person - the looter.
The poem then ends with the powerful self-acknowledgement of the speaker's fault, 'his bloody life in my bloody hands', alluding to Macbeth. Just how Macbeth sacrificed many innocent people in order to attain the title of King, the speaker feels as if they unjustly sacrificed the looter in order to achieve military pride. The use of the personal pronoun 'my' could link to how soldiers are not given mental support by the army, so they are left to deal with their mental problems unsupported - alone.
Overall, Remains sees the speaker slowly realise his own fault in the death of the looter, and he is ultimately ridden by guilt and trauma with no support by those he served.

[Giangsang]

I watch this when I need motivation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OBZ-dhA8IQ

[Anarchisticstan]

I watch this when I need motivation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqLWjK9igyo

[TheKeyToJOY]

Ballocks.

[BowShot118]

[LiberzanEmpire]

=|=)

[Kayden Nation]

[Altasund]

toes

[BowShot118]

[LiberzanEmpire]

toes

feets

[Altasund]

toesrana

[BowShot118]

[Kayden Nation]

ballpit

[LiberzanEmpire]

No

[Kayden Nation]

Oh my bad

[Giangsang]

toes... and feets?

[Altasund]

scandalous

[Anarchisticstan]

Skibidi rizz from """Ohio"""