Manhunt Poem

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In the world of poetry, there are remarkable poets that utilise poetic elements and themes in order to allow the audience or the reader to relate to the characters and their struggles – and to feel invested in the outcome. The poems The Manhunt, Not Waving But Drowning and Still I Rise by poets Simon Armitage, Stevie Smith, and Maya Angelou are examples which display comparable themes with one another. One theme that is shared throughout these poems is sorrow and emotional pain within the characters’ lives. Although the context of the poems may not be similar, the theme of sadness is displayed among all three of the poems within a specific character’s life. The Manhunt is written from the perspective of the wife of a soldier who has sustained…show more content…
Simon Armitage chose to express a sense of fragmentation, which matches the feelings of the soldier’s wife. The last word “close” adds to the fact that the speaker was only able to come “near” to the cause of the pain, but not to be able to cure it adds to the sadness of the overall poem. Throughout the poem, metaphors are used to represent an emotive encounter between the pair. In the second stanza, the metaphor ‘frozen river which ran through his face’ is used to demonstrate pain and emotion. Author of Not Waving But Drowning has used a similar concept to that of The Manhunt, it includes a character with emotional pain who drowns while swimming. At first, the reader thinks there is an actual swimming accident; however by the end of the poem, we develop the sense that swimming is an extended metaphor for the act of living. The person in the water tries to stay afloat until he can’t…show more content…
The ‘frozen river’ may be interpreted as scarring from his time in the war, or perhaps even tear tracks to explain the emotional trauma he may be experiencing and the metaphor used ‘frozen river that ran through his face’ displays imagery of landscapes and bumpy terrain. Similarly, in Not Waving But Drowning, the line “Oh, no no no, it was too cold always” also has a metaphorical meaning to it. The phrase “out in the cold” can mean excluded. Being out where the water is excessively cold appears like a representation for being cut off from the comfort of a warmth home and companions. The dead man felt he was always excluded from these basic comforts. In current society, racism is a major issue and whoever approves such actions will trigger sad emotions within the remaining population. Maya Angelou utilised this technique to Still I Rise, creating an emotional attachment to the poem due to reader being reminded of mistaken individuals that discriminate the African nation. The reader will feel saddened once Maya uses the image of a black ocean, which is full of terror and fear to show the audiences that she has spent all her life enduring all the rough times and facing the terrors and

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