Simon Armitage’s Poetry

Simon Armitage's Poetry

Support for studying English GCSE and A Level

Simon Armitage - Biography

Simon Robert Armitage was born on 26 May 1963, in Huddersfield, England. He is an English poet, playwright and novelist. Armitage was named Poet Laureate (Britain’s highest literary honour) on 10 May 2019, succeeding Carol Ann Duffy in the role.

Armitage studied Geography at Portsmouth Polytechnic and then he worked with young offenders before getting a postgraduate qualification in social work at Manchester University. He worked as a probation officer (until 1994) in Greater Manchester, “dragging junkies out of the gutter and sitting across the table from notorious criminals”.

Simon Armitage has taught at a number of universities: University of Leeds, University of Iowa, Manchester Metropolitan University, Sheffield University and Oxford University.

In 2010, Simon Armitage was awarded a CBE for services to poetry.

Armitage’s poetry regularly appears in AQA English GCSE anthologies. Many students have studied his work for GCSE English Literature.

Simon Armitage Cartoon - High Resolution

Simon Armitage - References

Wikipedia (Simon Armitage): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Armitage
British Council (Simon Armitage): https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/simon-armitage
Official website (Simon Armitage): https://www.simonarmitage.com/
BBC video clips (Simon Armitage): https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips-video/english-literature-ks3-gcse-simon-armitage-writing-poems/z72n92p
Poetry Live (Simon Armitage): http://poetrylive.net/speakers/simon-armitage/
Instagram (Simon Armitage): https://www.instagram.com/simonarmitage_official/

Simon Armitage - 'The Manhunt' - Annotation

Annotation prompts for Simon Armitage's 'The Manhunt'.

'The Manhunt' is written from the perspective of the wife of a soldier who has sustained serious injuries at war and returned home. It explores the physical and mental effects of living with injuries sustained at war. Many soldiers who return home from battle are psychologically affected by the events they have witnessed. Armitage states it is based on a soldier called Eddie who was shot in the face and the bullet ricocheted around his body. Laura is Eddie's wife and she is examining the course that the bullet has taken. Armitage was born in 1963 in West Yorkshire.

The annotation prompts are a supportive tool, intended to encourage further analysis and interpretation.

Simon Armitage - 'Harmonium' - Annotation

Annotation prompts for Simon Armitage's 'Harmonium'.

'Harmonium' is a nostalgic poem about someone rescuing a harmonium from being skipped. A harmonium is an organ-like keyboard instrument with small metal reeds and a pair of bellows operated by the player's feet. The narrator needs his or her father's help to carry the instrument away from the church. Armitage was born in 1963 in West Yorkshire. Armitage and his father were choir boys at the church of Saint Bartholomew in Marsden, a village in West Yorkshire.

The annotation prompts are a supportive tool, intended to encourage further analysis and interpretation.

Simon Armitage - 'Remains' - Annotation

Annotation prompts for Simon Armitage’s ‘Remains’.

‘Remains’ is an anecdotal account of a looter who is shot by three soldiers and the consequences that follow. “Remains” means: pieces, scraps, fragments left unused or behind after use - perhaps human remains. It is written from the perspective of a soldier who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Armitage interviewed veteran soldiers from different wars, which influenced his collection of poems called ‘The Not Dead’. Brian Hill produced a documentary in 2007 ‘The Not Dead’ where soldiers recite their war experiences along with Armitage’s poems. This poem is written in a colloquial (conversational) way.

In ‘The Not Dead’ the soldier in question declares, “I can still, to this day, remember as every round passed through. And he was lying there with his insides basically on the floor. And we had to leave him, clear the bank…got to the roof and looked over; the bloke was still there crying in agony. We come back down…another lad who was in my section, literally picked his insides up, dropped them back into his body…chucked into the back of the Warrior, never to be seen again.” Moreover, the solider states, “that was the first time I’d ever ended someone’s life… But to this day, there ain’t a day that goes by that I don’t go through that whole situation in my head.”

Many soldiers who return home from battle are psychologically affected by the events they have witnessed. Armitage says about his poetry collection: “These are poems of survivors – the damaged, exhausted men who return from war in body but never, wholly, in mind.” In ‘The Not Dead’, the solider comments that the army didn’t take his condition seriously: “I got laughed out of the office”.

The annotation prompts are a supportive tool, intended to encourage further analysis and interpretation.

Exemplar English Literature Essays

Poetry Essay helps you write essays about English Literature more confidently - providing you with a variety of helpful hints. With Poetry Essay, you should find all the help you need - from analysing a text in detail to writing coherently about it. Please visit the links below for exemplar student-style essays.