Manhunt and Nettles

315 Words2 Pages
The Manhunt Relationship is the connection between two people. In ‘The Manhunt’ Simon Armitage explore the relationship between a wife and her husband, an injured solider who has just returned from battle. In ‘Nettles’ the poem explores the relationship between a father and his young son who has fallen into a bed of stinging nettles. Both poets explore the compassion felt by the narrator of the poem for the other person in the relationship. In ‘The Manhunt’ the narrator’s compassion is for the mental anguish which the husband is obviously suffering. In ‘Nettles’ it is the father’s compassion for his son’s physical wounds. Both poets use unusual imagery to present the writer’s family member as needing protection. In ‘The Manhunt’ instead of the obvious representation of a solider as strong and powerful. Laura’s husband is likened to fine precious china, ‘delicate porcelain collar bone’. This gives the reader a sense of the fragility following the injuries as his ‘punctured lungs’ are described as delicate as ‘parachute silk’. This shows that reader Laura’s tenderness and how she wants to protect her husband. In Nettles an imagery of battle is used to describe what is only really a minor childhood incident. Scannell refers to the ‘spears’ of the nettles as ‘regiment’, then when he cuts them down and they grow back again he refers to them as ‘tall recruits’. This lets the reader understand the deeper metaphorical meaning behind his poem. That is not just about comforting the son from the pains from the nettles, but the speaker knows that protecting him from the painful experiences of life is not possible. ‘My son will often feel sharp wounds again’. Both poets use a simple rhyme scheme. ‘The Manhunt’ has rhyming couplets for each couplet used to separate each injury the solider has, including the scar on his face, the broken jaw and the collar
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