The Manhunt

First read the poem and then on your own, or in small groups, discuss each statement, all linked to the poem’s context made by people who had been studying The Manhunt. There’s not necessarily a “right answer” but you need to be able to give sound reasons for what you say. Try to consider the opposite point of view from those in the statements, to help you come to your own opinion.

The Manhunt

After the first phase,

after passionate nights and intimate days,


only then would he let me trace

the frozen river which ran through his face,


only then would he let me explore

the blown hinge of his lower jaw,


and handle and hold

the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,


and mind and attend

the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,


and finger and thumb

the parachute silk of his punctured lung.


Only then could I bind the struts

and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,


and feel the hurt

of his grazed heart.


Skirting along,

only then could I picture the scan,


the foetus of metal beneath his chest

where the bullet had finally come to rest.


Then I widened the search,

traced the scarring back to its source


to a sweating, unexploded mine

buried deep in his mind, around which


every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.

Then, and only then, did I come close.



Simon Armitage