carol ann duffy poems

Question 1

the only light is red and softly glows as though this were a church

Answer 1

simile, religious imagery

he sees himself as a priest because they spread news and change peoples lives and he does the same with photos

Question 2

dark room

Answer 2

word choice, metaphor

suggest he literally is in a dark room it takes him to a dark place literally

Question 3

finally alone

Answer 3

word choice, inversion

inversion is to emphasise

“finally” suggests he’s been longing for solitude

“alone” reflects the loneliness of his job

Question 4

spools of suffering set out in ordered rows

Answer 4

alliteration, word choice

the harsh “s” and the “o” is marked out

the ordered rows brings the image of tombstones or ranks of soldiers linking to the horror of war

Question 5

the only light is red and softly glows

Answer 5

“only” builds on the idea of solitude and loneliness

“red” symbolises danger/blood what be deals with taking photos

“softly glows” idea of safe,lonely, quiet

Question 6

as though this were a church and be a priest preparing to intone a mass

Answer 6

extended imagine

the developing room is compared to a church

comparable to spreading the word of god

Question 7

beirut. belfast. phnom panh

Answer 7

list, single word sentences

sounds like roll call like they’re from a longer list

the places have suffered from civil war genocide

Question 8

all flesh is grass

Answer 8

biblical, juxtaposition

bible quotation used to illustrate that god is eternal

photographer is spreading an important message in his photos

mass graves where the bodies decompose and turn into grass

Question 9

he has a job to do

Answer 9

simple sentence

refers to him developing photos that he literally has a job to do

Question 10

solutions slop

Answer 10

alliteration, word choice, onomatopoeia

“solutions” means literally the liquid used to develop the pictures also suggests the solution to the problem

the solution to the problem is sloppy

contrasts between the messiness of war and the order at home

Question 11

hands which didn’t tremble then though seem to now

Answer 11

his hands were steady when taking photos when he’s home he suppress his stress

Question 12

rural england

Answer 12

word choice

shifts to the photographers home rural connotes a perfect country side life

green grass, peaceful, calm

Question 13

Ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel

Answer 13

word choice

The oxymoron “ordinary pain”, then, makes the reader consider what is meant. The kind of pain experienced in “rural England” is not really pain at all, but unhappiness which can be solved by more sunshine.

Question 14

Fields which don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat

Answer 14

word choice

These lines emphasise the terrible contrast between this life, and the “nightmare” life in a war zone (which might contain minefields.)

Question 15

Something is happening

Answer 15

simple sentence

The “something” is ambiguous: literally a photograph is developing, but something else is happening too – the photographer is experiencing all the associated feelings and memories that the photo holds for him.

Question 16

A stranger’s features/slowly start to twist before his eyes

Answer 16

word choice

The photograph begins to develop. The word “twist” is a verb with connotations of pain, anguish, horror or shock. This may be because the man in the photo is dying or in pain, it may reflect the anguish of the photographer himself.

Question 17

A half-formed ghost

Answer 17

metaphor

The man in the photo has become a ghost. This suggests his death. Perhaps too, the photographer is “haunted” by memories of it.

Question 18

He remembers the cries/of how this man’s wife, how he sought approval/without words to do what someone must/and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

Answer 18

As the photograph begins to come to life, so too do the photographer’s memories of the incident.

Extra senses are described: the sound of the wife’s sorrow and the colour/texture of his blood soaking into the earth.

The incident highlights the moral dilemma faced by the war photographers. They have a job to do but they are intruding on other people’s misery.

Question 19

A hundred agonies in black and white

Answer 19

metaphor

In this metaphor the photographs have become physical manifestations of pain and suffering: each one tells a story

the pictures are literally monochrome. Alternatively, there is no doubt or uncertainty about the agony in the pictures:

the suffering is there to see in black and white

Question 20

From which his editor will pick out five or six

Answer 20

word choice

In contrast to the “hundreds” of pictures of suffering available, the editor only has room for a few. The word “pick” and the vagueness of “five or six” suggests a criticism of the editor for being casual/off-hand when dealing with these pictures.

Question 21

For Sunday’s supplement

Answer 21

alliteration, word choice

There is perhaps an implicit criticism here: the photographer’s pictures aren’t considered important enough to be part of the main news section, but are relegated to the “extra bits.