Explore the poet's attitude to conflict, and how he presents it, in the poem 'Remains' by Simon Armitage

For this question, and all other unseen analysis questions, I think it's important to approach the analysis of the poem in a certain order. You should begin by establishing the bigger ideas, as your answer is likely to be confused and less logical if you try to pick out certain lines before you've grasped the basic ideas and structure of the poem. I would try to stick to the following order when approaching these types of questions:1) The basic ideas of the poem: is there a clear story? Is the poem more abstract? Who is speaking? What about? What is the main theme of the poem? It's useful to use the idea that you're asked to examine in the question (here: the poem's attitude to conflict) to guide your understanding of the poem. In 'Remains,' it is clear that the poet is presenting conflict as not only physically, but also mentally, damaging. Although there is one speaker, he uses the personal pronoun 'we,' suggesting that all soldiers are affected in a similar way, and that war has depersonalised these men, so that they 'are all of the same mind.'2) Once you've understood what the poet is trying to say, you need to start thinking about how they're saying it! Structure can be hard to analyse at first, but it will really improve your answer if you can look at things like rhyme schemes, enjambement (when a sentence is continued from one line to another, or one stanza to another, without a pause), caesuras (the use of punctuation to create a pause in the middle of a line), and line lengths. Armitage uses enjambement frequently in this poem, which represents the fragmented thoughts of the soldier and his fractured and tortured state of mind. 3) After you've analysed the structure of the poem as a whole, you can start picking out certain lines which you feel are relevant to the question. Pay attention to the writer's techniques - is the language used of a certain type? Does the poet use alliteration, monosyllabic words, longer words, speech, etc? Is the language casual or more formal? Does it all relate to violence, or does the poet use juxtaposition (when two contrasting ideas are placed together). In the line 'dream, and he's torn apart by a dozen rounds,' for example, the peaceful 'dream' is placed next to the idea of death and violence, which emphasises the extent to which the war has affected the soldier's everyday life: even sleeping is no longer peaceful. You should then conclude, making sure you reference the question directly - here, you should summarise the points you have made about how the poet represents conflict, and conclude by summarising his attitudes towards conflict.