Poetry and prose
War Photographer
Poet: Carol Ann Duffy
- First female Laureate
- First Scottish Laureate
Background
- Inspired by a friend who was a war
photographer
- Nature of journalism
o Detached joy
o detached/uncaring society
Form/structure:
- 4 stanzas - sestets
- Rhyme scheme - ABBCDD
○ Regular rhyme scheme vs. chaos of war
○ Lots of enjambment
○ 3d person narration
Tone:
- Melancholic - “In his dark room he is finally
alone”
- Cynical - “...he earns his living and they do not
care.”
- Pessimistic -“A hundred agonies in black and
white”
Language
- “With spools of suffering set out in ordered
rows”
o Visual imagery - emphasises the sinister
atmosphere and detachment of the
society from what is happening in the
war
o Sibilance - emphasises the sinister
atmosphere
- “To fields which don’t explode beneath the
feet/of running children in a nightmare heat.”
o Visual imagery, emotive language -
emphasises the horrors of the war
o A reference to a famous photograph
- “Rural England” - caesura/shows detached, cosy
life away from war
- “half formed ghost” - metaphor for death
Themes
- War
- Detachment of the society
Remember
Poet: Christina Rossetti
- pre-raphaelite poet
- vestige - trace/remnant
Form/structure:
- direct address from 1st person
○ From the poet (‘me and I’) to a loved
one/lover (‘you’)
- Petrarchan sonnet
- volta - ‘Yet’ -- the argument of the poem
changes
- octave - urging, commanding, pleading
- sestet - selfless
Tone:
- Melancholic - “Gone far away into the silent
land”
- nostalgic -“you tell me of our future that you
planned”
Language
- “Remember me / Remember me”
o Repetition - emphasises the narrator’s
slow loss of memory and life
o repeats like a refrain
- “Gone away / Gone far away.”
o repetition - reinforces the distance
between the narrator and the
lover/loved one
o emphasises the boundary between life
and death
- “vestige of the thoughts that I once had” -
suggests her melancholic/troubled, possibly
suicide mind
Themes
- death
- love
- memories
War Photographer
Poet: Carol Ann Duffy
- First female Laureate
- First Scottish Laureate
Background
- Inspired by a friend who was a war
photographer
- Nature of journalism
o Detached joy
o detached/uncaring society
Form/structure:
- 4 stanzas - sestets
- Rhyme scheme - ABBCDD
○ Regular rhyme scheme vs. chaos of war
○ Lots of enjambment
○ 3d person narration
Tone:
- Melancholic - “In his dark room he is finally
alone”
- Cynical - “...he earns his living and they do not
care.”
- Pessimistic -“A hundred agonies in black and
white”
Language
- “With spools of suffering set out in ordered
rows”
o Visual imagery - emphasises the sinister
atmosphere and detachment of the
society from what is happening in the
war
o Sibilance - emphasises the sinister
atmosphere
- “To fields which don’t explode beneath the
feet/of running children in a nightmare heat.”
o Visual imagery, emotive language -
emphasises the horrors of the war
o A reference to a famous photograph
- “Rural England” - caesura/shows detached, cosy
life away from war
- “half formed ghost” - metaphor for death
Themes
- War
- Detachment of the society
Remember
Poet: Christina Rossetti
- pre-raphaelite poet
- vestige - trace/remnant
Form/structure:
- direct address from 1st person
○ From the poet (‘me and I’) to a loved
one/lover (‘you’)
- Petrarchan sonnet
- volta - ‘Yet’ -- the argument of the poem
changes
- octave - urging, commanding, pleading
- sestet - selfless
Tone:
- Melancholic - “Gone far away into the silent
land”
- nostalgic -“you tell me of our future that you
planned”
Language
- “Remember me / Remember me”
o Repetition - emphasises the narrator’s
slow loss of memory and life
o repeats like a refrain
- “Gone away / Gone far away.”
o repetition - reinforces the distance
between the narrator and the
lover/loved one
o emphasises the boundary between life
and death
- “vestige of the thoughts that I once had” -
suggests her melancholic/troubled, possibly
suicide mind
Themes
- death
- love
- memories
