War Photographer Flashcards
what is the poem about?
a war photographer is in his darkroom developing pictures, from one of the photos he remembers the death of a man and the cried of his wife
‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
the reels of film are described like soldiers, or like rows of war graves. Paradox - chaos and suffering are reduced to something ordered
‘All flesh is grass’
quote from the bible (Isaiah 40:6) which means that human life is temporary
‘his hands, which did not tremble then’
Irony - he was calm in the face of horrors, but the affect him when he is alone
‘of running children in a nightmare heat’
may be a reference to a Vietnam War photo. The link hints at the importance of the photographer’s work, as the photo is something credited with helping to end the war
‘something is happening’
Volta, focus switches to the personal cost of war
‘a strangers features faintly start to twist before his eyes’
focusing on one photo and family makes this personal and emphasises the real suffering of war
‘blood stained into foreign dust’
reminder that this all happened somewhere else. ‘stained’ hints and the lasting impact of war and the image is ingrained into his mind
‘a hundred agonies in black and white’
emotive metaphor to describe his photos, having the picture printed seems to confirm and solidify the suffering they show
‘tears’ ‘beers’
the internal rhyme emphasises the short duration of the readers’ pain - the tears will quickly be replaced with beers
‘they do not care’
ambiguous - it could refer to the reader of the newspapers who don’t care about the victims of war, or it could refer to the wider world, which is apathetic about others’ suffering
what are the themes in ‘war photographer’?
effects of conflict, memory, guilt, individual experience
effects of conflict in ‘war photographer’?
in the war zone he is able to keep a steady hand but his hands tremble when he sees the photos develop, his view of home is also affected by his experience of war
memory in ‘war photographer’?
the photographer’s memories are triggered by the developing photos, senses are used to describe his memories - this makes them personal and vivid in his mind, the way his hands tremble suggests that remembering the scenes is difficult
guilt in ‘war photographer’?
feels guilt about the ease of England ‘ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel’
