War Photographer Flashcards
Themes (6)
- Effects of conflict: Poppies: different perspectives of the war, similar effects
- Reality of conflict: Exposure, harsh realities of war not initially considered
- Memory: Remains: PTSD, individual experience
- Anger: London: injustice, suffering, political poem
- Guilt
- Individual Experiences: Remains
Big ideas (3)
- Pain and Detachment
- Reality of war
- Memory
About
The photographer develops film of the conflicts he has covered. At the end of the poem, he imagines the indifference felt by the newspaper readers who will just glance at his pictures.
“spools of suffering”
Reality of conflict, Anger
Alliteration: Makes clear Duffy’s sympathy for the victims
“Suffering” highlights their anguish and distress (possibly before dying)
“Spools” = lots of both images and lots of (whole reels of) suffering in the war zones
Religious imagery “a priest preparing to intone a Mass”, “all flesh is grass”
Memory, Individual experiences
“priest”: spreads message from God, they see and hear problems and can help. The photographer spreads the message of awareness of war and sees the problems of the suffering people in the war zone. His work is of sacred significance so the world is informed.
“all flesh is grass”: biblical reference: we are buried in the ground after death, where we end up. Shows the fragility of life and it is easily destroyed by war, everyone dies, war is implied to be something overwhelming beyond the scale of ordinary life.
“half-formed ghost”
Effect of conflict, Memory
“ghost” = death, experience is haunting him, PTSD, ghosts can travel through walls, it is now coming through the photo he is developing
Slow development of film being processed into an image
Soldier was half-way to death, dying was painful and lengthy, ghostly
Caesura – symbolises end of soldier’s life, was cut short, a pause of remembrance, respect, solemnity, silence
After the photo has been developed he would have done service to the man and his memory
Back home to “Rural England” “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat”
Effect of conflict, Reality of conflict
“explode beneath the feet” – land mines, always unsafe but “fields” should be safe, not a war zone
Imagery of awful scenes, helpless terror contrasts with simple weather and life in England: “ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel”
“children” – symbol of innocence, being killed for doing nothing, their vulnerability
“Nightmare heat” – weather is unbearable alongside fear of war, awful imagery, “Nightmare” – helpless terror
“a hundred agonies in black and white”
Effect of conflict, Reality of conflict
“Agonies” = distress, anguish, torment, painful deaths and suffering, extreme pain
“hundred” = emphasis of this, widespread suffering in the war zone
Metaphorical representation of the victims’ pain
Metaphor also amplifies the immense amount of suffering that we don’t know about and the photographer is trying to educate his audience through the photos
“the reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers”
They seem to care “prick with tears” however only minimally, “prick” not “flood”, and they are not prepared to break their daily yet unimportant routines in comparison to the horrors the photographer has witnessed
Doesn’t have a lasting impact, they move on, some sympathy but not more important than “beers”
They are safe in a normal life and don’t act, Duffy criticises them for being lazy and ignorant of the war
Not meaningful tears, just a part of a Sunday ritual, they don’t understand the suffering that takes place
“he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care”
Effect of conflict, Anger
“They” = external, opposition, he doesn’t agree, everyone except him, makes the reader question whether they are included in the “they”
He is detached from his home as a result, people don’t understand what he knows all too well, they don’t care
They don’t show nay empathy or compassion for something so awful and unbelievable
Criticism of the British public as they don’t care about third-world countries suffering despite his efforts to educate them as a war photographer
Strcuture (6)
- 4 stanzas of 6 lines, each stanza may be a frame of a photo and each reveals more about how he feels about his work
- Regular rhyme scheme: “abbcdd”, may represent the repeated movements of developing an image and the meticulous nature of his job or could suggest the regular, repeated pattern of how the soldiers are forced to dress, act, march, live as it is very uniform.
- Final rhyming couplet shows how he knows his work fulfils an important function in society by bringing awareness to the public about the conflict and war despite the mental pain he receives
- Enjambment reflects firstly the gradual reveal of the photograph during development and secondly the long-lasting effects of war on those directly involved such as the people in the photos and also the photographer himself and they don’t just end after the war
- The narrative of the poem runs on through this mechanism representing the photographer’s mind running away with him as he remembers the suffering he has witnessed.
- The use of caesura make the reader focus closely on the photograph being developed and through the enjambment the reader experiences the same emotions and helps us to understand his torment
Context (4)
- The poem describes the photographer’s return to England where he develops the photographs he has developed which will be published in the Sunday supplement
- He is troubled that no one in England seems to care for more than a moment about the horrors of human suffering he has photographed, the poem is political
- Duffy is fascinated with what makes someone want to do this job and so has put the ‘voices’ of the war photographers into the poem, she wanted to focus more on them instead of on the war as she is interested in the dilemma of someone who has to go to these places and return with these images
- The poem was written in the late 20th century but before the use of digital cameras and social media so the photographer has to develop images in a dark room and as he does he relives the memories; the photo takes time to be revealed as the horrors come flooding back.
