Smile- structure, meaning, imagery, language and effect on the reader In the Manhunt, this poem is read in a first

person narrative by the wife of Eddie Beddoes, Laura. Armitage explores the physical, psychological effects of war and how it affects on soldiers returning from war and their family. However, in Quick draw, Duffy uses conceits to express the pain and pleasures of being in a romantic relationships and how difficult it is to communicate in any relationship. In the structure of the Manhunt, it has a form of rhyming couplets. The continuous use of two lined stanzas gives a sense of fragmentation and fragility of the relationship but it also shows the wifes patience and her actions in trying to console and help her husband slowly in baby steps. The rhyming couplets gives a sense of closeness and togetherness (trace/ face) but the mixture between full and half rhyme (attend/blade) suggests a sense of distance and that the partnership is incomplete or broken thus mirroring their broken relationship. Similarly, Quickdraw is free verse creates tension and the beginning three verses are irregular, unstable and enforced breaks throughout the poems further adds to tension and gives the poem a more erratic and fast paced like a heated argument. It also it shows the inner turmoil and feelings and the abnormality shows the disintegrating relationship. Despite this, the ending stanza returns to a normal rectangular shape thus reflecting their return to normality and how their emotions have returned back to normal. The rhyming scheme also contains half rhymes echo the emphasis on the phone and how the fragmentary nature of the phone does not allow the reader to properly express their feelings and limits their speech. In the couplet at the beginning of the poem, phones should rhyme with alone however it is placed at the beginning of the first line to highlight her loneliness and vulnerability. The language in Manhunt is very powerful and uses a range of imagery as Armitage repeats only then to show the patience and the careful procedure that this takes. The frozen river is quite ambiguous. It could literally mean the scar that is permanent on his face and expresses the physical damage he has endured but it can be interpreted as an inability to function (the river has a purpose of flowing and since it is frozen, it has no purpose) therefore it could mean that the husband is unable to escape from the pain and cannot function normally. The river showing the depth and ferocity of his pain and suffering. The frozen river could symbolise hope for the wife as the river can unfreeze and could Also the blown hinge and fractured rudder reinforce the inability to function as the damage caused has stopped everything from working. The blown hinge jaw also suggests that he is unable to talk to her and cannot open up and communicate. Additionally, it introduces metaphors of war and the physical repercussions. The foetus of metal has many interpretations as it could literally mean that the metal will be forever be embedding in his skin but metaphorically is means that this foetus will continue to grow and representing the inner vulnerability of the man and will continuously create more pain. The usage of present tense when metaphorically describing his mind like a sweating, unexploded mine shows that the wife must not rush or she might get hurt, the sweating shows that he is struggling to keep in the pain and eventually it needs to explode. The ending of Manhunt is kept ambiguous as she only come closer therefore suggesting that she has not identified the source and Armitage intentionally does this to show that this procedure is long and will take time.

The language in Quickdraw is similarly powerful and a sense of desperation and high stakes words associated with the Wild West slung quickdraw twirl sheriff thus showing the fierce the battle between the two and describing the dynamic of the two. In the third stanza the speaker is symbolically wounded 'through the heart' suggesting that the attacker has said something particularly hurtful. Moreover, the line 'through the heart' is given its own line which creates a dramatic pause between the line 'then blast me' at the end of the second stanza. One effect of this structural device is to give the impression of time standing still, and to focus the reader on the this detail. A shot to the heart should be fatal, but as this is a metaphorical technique we can assume that the only thing that could die here would be love, or the relationship. You will also see that this potentially fatal shot to the heart happens almost precisely in the middle of the poem suggesting that this is a tipping point where everything could change. The high noon and the last chance saloon shows the breaking point and calamity reinforces this critical moment but it shows a sense of chaos too. Duffy uses the Sheriff to suggest that the sheriff could be a third party, a friend perhaps to whom the speaker shows the hurtful texts. In the same way the Man hunt ended, it ended ambiguously as the connotations with silver bullets of your kisses creates has many interpretations. In one way, it is precious metal but it is very strong and powerful thus can kill. However, it can show that the love shot at her were as strong as bullets. In conclusions, Quickdraw and the Manhunt have many similar qualities as they both hone in the pain and suffering of the relationships but since the contexts are different they created different effects.