War photographer Flashcards
Context
In the 80s to take photos you would go into a dark room and put it in a solution
War photographers would go to war zones and capture violent moments
Soon after Vietnam war, where the American public was outraged at photos they saw if the war
Motivations
To show the impossibility of presenting horros of war
Because it’s pointless. People don’t care enough
So criticises this apathy
What happens in it?
War photographer comes home from war zone to see his photos
He is reminded of how different war zone and domestic life is
Picture starts to develop
People in England will be sad at photos but forget
Structure of whole poem
4 stanzas
6 lines per stanza
Rhyme scheme of whole poem
1st rhymes with nothing
2nd and 3rd rhyme
4th doesn’t rhyme
5th and 6th rhymes
Effect of structure and rhyme scheme?
Tight and controlled: reflect photographer trying to impose order on war to make it more palliative for the reader
However it doesn’t change so his efforts are futile
Reflective of 4x6 photo size.
The photo contains a snapshot of chaos just like the poem does, contained so the reader can handle it
Juxtaposition in structure
Tightly controlled structure and rhyme scheme compared to the chaos of the war and the photos she mentions
Effect of juxtaposition in structure
Relays the message that although he tries to make it palatable for the reader, the war will continue and the reader won’t care
Caesura
‘Though seem to now. Rural England. Home again’
Effect of caesura
Separates Rural England from the rest of the poem and so the war zone
The reader can’t separate what they see on a superficial level from the true horros of war
They have the privilege to be in a very protected area and can separate what happens mentally from reality
Half rhyme
‘With tears between the bath and pre lunch beers’
Effect of half rhyme
Quickens the pace of final verse to represent us quickly forgetting the effect the photos had on us
Cyclical structure
‘In his darkroom he is finally alone’
‘From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where/ he earns his living and they do not care’
Returning from war zone then goes back
Effect of cyclical structure
His job is his fate
He has to continue doing it but his efforts are futile because England won’t care: they only feel for a moment
Colours
‘Darkroom’
‘The only light is red’
Effect of using colours
Sinister and evil tone
Represents that war is the darkness of humanity
Contrasts religious imagery
Religious imagery
‘He/ a priest preparing to intone a mass’
‘All flesh is grass’ (Old Testament verse)
Effect of using religious imagery
Creates solemn and serious role to his job like a mass
Contrasts the evil imagery of colours
‘Ordered rows’
Reminds us of war graves
Also trying to sanitise conflict for the reader but you can’t
‘All flesh is grass’
Book of Isiah
About the fleeting nature of human life because of war
Highlights this fragility of life yet we don’t want to acknowledge it just like war
‘Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh’
Caesura = forces us to stop and think what each place contains
Because the poem criticises that we don’t do that
Ps and Bs (plosives) = creatives effect of quick fire gun shots
‘Half-formed ghost’
The photo hasn’t yet developed = fading but coming back into existence
Person was hurt and mutilated so badly in war
Last line of poem
‘He earns his living and they do not care’
Effect of the last line
‘They’ = ambiguity
Could be newspaper reader in the poem who quickly forgets
Wider world that is apathetic to suffering
Us who reads the poem then doesn’t care any more???
What other poem does it compare to?
Bayonet charge = Hughes borrows from owen because he can’t describe horros of war
Duffy can but feels it’s pointless because people don’t care
