Whereas quickdraw is used in a more modern society as she refers to the use of a mobile phone but in the same relevance as manhunt. Quickdraw is a violent, potentially lethal meet between two rivals. In the opening stanza of the poem the speaker tells us that he or she wears two phones, one a landline and the other a mobile, and uses them like guns. The image that develops is of a person with a phone in each pocket trying to imitate a person preparing for a quickdraw. When the reader reads the word ‘slung’ it immediately makes them think of the relevance with the guns which is associated with the Wild West, so we know that the poet is preparing us for some kind of battle. In the poem, two people have a painful argument over the phone with the poet using the metaphor of a gunfight to emphasise the deliberate wounding and aggression of a lover's argument.
The first two stanzas follow this basic plan, with the two lovers taking turns to fire shots (say hurtful things) to one another. The poet uses the second person (“you ring”,”you've wounded me”) to draw the reader into the poem and personalise the action - to make it feel like you're part of the poem. We are told that we fired the first shot, and the speaker tried to return fire only to miss. The speaker then twirls the phones like a gunfighter twirls his guns.
Both poems use assonance to portray strong feelings towards the second person. In Manhunt, the poet uses the repetition of the vowel sound to show that the narrator and her husband are both apart and although she is treating to the damage done to his body, the psychological damage will only go away with time. ‘Only then could I bind the struts and climb the rungs of his broken ribs’. This quote uses the long ‘I’ sound in ‘bind’ and ‘climb’ which shows the gentle actions of his loving wife, who is trying to care for and tender him, whereas the short snapped vowels of ‘struts’, ‘rungs’ and ‘ribs’ sound as if he is broken inside. This is quite an effective technique as it makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the soldier and his wife, as they have realised what a negative impact war can have on a family. On the other hand, Quickdraw also uses assonance of an ‘ee’ sound, to reflect the pain the narrator feels when she is waiting for the second person to reply to the text. In the fourth stanza, ‘concealed’, ‘reel’, ‘knees’, and ‘read’ emphasize the long drawn-out moments when time seems to slow down. This can relate to the reader as nearly everyone has felt a moment where they feel like time is dragging on and they don’t know how to pass the time. However, Quickdraw contains a place to strong emotional pain, ‘Down on my knees, I fumble for the phone, read the silver bullets of your kiss.’ This quote reflects the pain of the narrator, as she falls down on her knees. This is suggesting that she feels weak and she won’t have enough strength to read the message sent without shaking, therefore she falls to her knees impatiently looking at the phone, trying to open the text that she has received. The ‘silver bullet’s reflect the western battle theme and this is when the conceit in the poem has come to an end: after all the the pain the narrator has felt, the argument has finally ended with just a few kisses in a text message. It makes the reader feel as if it is just a dream where a small kiss can make everything perfect, however, in reality this argument can be ended with kisses, but in long term it will always lead to more differences. However, in the Manhunt the poet uses alliteration to show how the wife is determined to make her husband feel better. The quote ‘to handle and to hold’ uses this which reminds the reader of the marriage vows, where the bride and groom both promise ‘to have and to hold from this day forward’. It makes the reader see her perspective and her efforts to rebuild their relationship, presenting the strong emotions she feels for her husband, to care for him in good health and in bad.
