War Photographer

Question 1

“In his dark room he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.”

Answer 1

• starts with a trochaic rhythm but then switches it to iambic in the second verse, this immediately unsettled the reader.
• the dark room is literally the place that old films used to be developed however it symbolises that his purpose is dark so it questions the moral purpose of the war photographer.
  -‘finally alone’ he is pleased at last to be alone to be on his own, perhaps he is someone who doesn’t like humanity.
  -‘spools’ metaphor- unraveling the negatives but also gives the idea conveys the idea of suffering.
  -‘spools of suffering’- alliteration, sibilance, soft sound but also sinister feeling. Gives the idea of what he’s doing is sinister and not only just the photograph and being the public observer of this and not interfering.
  -“ordered rows” - allusion to death because the semantic field of this is a graveyard and how they are set onto ordered rows.
  The idea of this war photographer earning his living through other peoples death and it is a central moral dilemma.

Question 2

“Half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval”

Answer 2

• “half-formed ghost” can’t focus on the dead person and only focusing on that persons wife and her cries, puts ‘cries’ at the end of the line to emphasises the pain that she’s feeling,
  -“sought approval” contrasts that with his own feelings which are seeking approval and it sounds like he’s asking for permission to be allowed to photograph this situation.

Question 3

“The readers eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and prelunch beers”

Answer 3

-internal rhyme which makes it sound very hairy and jolly which is done ironically because the reader should feel shock and horror and Duffy uses that to contrast with the emotion which should be tears but here the readers eyeballs prick with tears that prick is tiny and suggest how few the tears are and it also converts that they don’t fully form so the emotion isn’t there.

Question 4

“From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do not care”

Answer 4

• ambiguous - is he staring out at Britain as he leaves and goes back off to war or is he staring impassively at the war he is leaving to return back to Britain.
  Either way his stare is impassive, without feeling. The war photographer has been destroyed by his role and is unable to feel pleasure at coming home or pleasure at providing service In the war that he’s in.