The Manhunt and Hour

H/W       “The Manhunt” and “Hour”                        Mary-Jane Farrell

     The Manhunt, by Simon Armitage, presents the reader with many different images and ideas about the relationship, and the general meaning of different phrases. The poem suggests that a woman was never fully aware of exactly who their husband was, and it is only until now in which she can attempt to search and investigate him as a man she was before involved with. The reader can speculate that the poem is exploring the physical and mental effects of having lived with injuries which had been sustained when previously on active service in the armed forces. In these thirteen unsettling couplets, this injured man is explored and almost found.

      Hour, by Carol Ann Duffy, portrays a much happier affair and relationship, which, unlike The Manhunt, seems to be an obviously passionate connection, and portrays a love which is making the most use possible out of the limited time the couple have left together. However, both Hour and The Manhunt both convey difficulties and obstacles that occur in the relationships; in the Hour it clearly presents the idea of time being the obstacle.

     In The Manhunt, the reader is brought to the closing line “Then, and only then, did I come close”. This ending portrays a long journey previously taken in order to get the very closest to achieving the best understanding that the narrator has finally come close to discovery. This then also confirms that at no time in the poem before the final line had the narrator been fully confident about the findings. It is only until then in which the narrator realizes that the husband’s problems lie as much in memories of his experience as they do in physical scars. Before the final line, the reader is presented with the metaphor: “a sweating, unexploded mine, buried deep in his mind”. This presents to the reader that not only has the man received deadly major wounds, but the main source of the problem is that of the relationship between the two people, and the inside feelings which are trying to be resolved.

     The ending line for the poem Hour, presents a much more uplifting, happy and hopeful result: “love spins gold, gold, gold from straw”. This phrase leads the reader to the assumption that time will triumph, that the couple won’t let this obstacle affect them. Contrast is also shown with the two words which stand out particularly: ‘gold’ and ‘straw’. These two words are completely opposite; straw is seen as weak and worthless, whereas gold is seen as rich and precious. These two words reflect simply on the relationship of the couple, that they can get through anything because of their love together, they can pull out something positive from something negative. This final line also makes the reader think of a fairytale because of the fantasy idea of turning straw into gold, causing the reader to feel satisfied with an almost fairytale like ending.