War Photographer

What is the overview of War Photographer?

A war photographer contemplates his job + concludes people don’t care

Who is the author of War Photographer?

Carol Ann Duffy

Give me contextual points about Carol Ann Duffy

• Was poet laureate

• Was intrigued in difficult jobs

Give me contextual points about War Photographer

Someone who goes and takes pictures of the horrors of the war + sees it happen first hand

What is the form of War Photographer + its effects

• 3rd person

• 4 Stanzas of equal length/ Regular rhyme scheme:

  Lack of change to rigid form could be a metaphor for the photographers failure to change the perspective + actions of his audience, their minds are absolute and can’t be change

Language Quote 1

“All ____ is ____”

“All flesh is grass”

Biblical reference which explains the transience of human life, also emphasises that war has normalised mass death

“Flesh” dehumanises and collectivises them

Language Quote 2

“His ___ which did ___ not ____ then though ____ to ____”

“His hand which did not tremble then though seem to now”

“did not tremble then” suggests that in the moment he was so desensitised from the situation, he felt nothing

“Though seem to now” ironic and he is away from danger but as the photos develop, he has to relive through everything and once he is away from the torture, is when he feels pain

Language Quote 3

“___ stares _______” … “They ___ not ____”

“He stares impassively”... “They do not care”

Collective pronoun “they” creates an accusatory tone which could invoke feelings of guilt in the reader

Ends poem with a defeated tone

Language Quote 4

“In ___ _______”… “The ___ light is ___”

“In his darkroom” … “The only lights is red”

“Darkroom” creates a foreboding atmosphere which sets the mood for the whole poem or can be interpreted as him finding solace in a “darkroom” after being exposed to horrors, a means of hiding

“Red” violent connotation of the colour imagery: symbolises bloodshed and the numerous innocent lives that are taken

Language Quote 5

“A ____ ____ in ___ and ____”

“A hundred agonies in black and white”

Emotive metaphor emphasise that the photographs are the crystallisation of excruciating pain and suffering

“Agonies” is a metonym for the photographs, emphasises the pain

“Black and white” references the past, how war is a iniquitous trait of every generation

Language Quote 6

“_____ children in a ______ heat”

“Running children in a nightmare heat”

Reference to 'the ‘Napalm Girl’ photography in which a nine year old girl is running naked in agony during the Vietnam war

Emphasises how everyone is a victim

Structure Quote 1

• Internal rhyme — “tears” and “beers”

  Emphasises the short duration of sympathy felt by readers

What is the key idea of War Photographer?

Photographer has a sense of duty which isn’t being fulfilled as people do not care