WAR PHOTOGRAPHER

Question 1

what is the poem war photographer about?

Answer 1

the peculiar challenge faced by war photographers, whose job requires them to record terrible, horrific events without being able to help them directly.

Question 2

what is the structure of the poem war photographer?

Answer 2

four stanzas of six lines each with a complex rhyme scheme (ABBCDD)

Question 3

What’s the quote with sibilance in war photographer?

Answer 3

“spools of suffering set out in orderly rows”

Question 4

what’s a metaphor for grief and pain in war photographer

Answer 4

“spools of suffering” - noun “spools” (where photographic film is coiled) contains pictures of war victims metaphor for grief and pain, which the photographer captures.

Question 5

what’s the quote with juxtaposition with “spools” and “ordered”

Answer 5

set out in orderly rows

Question 6

what’s the quote which shows the photos are set out like war graves

Answer 6

“set out in orderly rows”

Question 7

What’s the quote with single sentences and plosive consonants which suggests bombing, aggression + anger

Answer 7

“Belfast. Beirut.Phnom Penh” - all war zones.

Question 8

what is the biblical quote from Isaiah 40?

Answer 8

“All flesh is grass”

Question 9

What does the quote “all flesh is grass” mean

Answer 9

could also be a metaphor that represents the bodies not returning to their homeland. Instead the corpses decompose on foreign fields and that human life is temporary

Question 10

which quote creates a sense of confusion because the photographer is use to explosion

Answer 10

“To fields that don’t explode beneath the feet”

Question 11

What’s the quote which could be a reference to the Napalm girl which is argued to help end the war

Answer 11

“running children in nightmare heat”

Question 12

what could “nightmare heat” suggest

Answer 12

hell

Question 13

What quote suggest that the person has died during fighting, transformation of life to death, has died whilst the photo is taking, the photo is developing and that many young people died very young age, some not fully-formed in terms of emotional and intellectual maturity.

Answer 13

Half-formed ghost

Question 14

Which quote is hyperbolic, ironically a round number but still close to reality to design to shock the reader

Answer 14

“a hundred agonies in black-and-white”

Question 15

what does “black-and-white” suggest

Answer 15

an expression of clarity- suggesting that the effects of war on people is extremely clear

Question 16

what quote creates an ironically jogging rhythm- almost a nursery rhyme, it is also a internal rhyme

Answer 16

“the readers eyeballs prick with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers”

Question 17

What does “prick” suggest

Answer 17

refers to the pain felt when pricking one’s finger, It is fleeting and quickly forgotten which shows how the photographer / Duffy knows realistically his work won’t make people in “Rural england” care

Question 18

What is the other quote which is a biblical reference, reinforces the biblical metaphors?

Answer 18

“blood stained into foreign dust”

Question 19

what’s the effect of using “stain” on “blood stained into foreign dust”

Answer 19

the memories and associated feelings are remaining with him forever penetrating his conscious, leaving him scarred - PTSD

Question 20

What is the juxtaposition in “blood stained into foreign dust”

Answer 20

“stained” implies that the death of the soldiers and victims cannot be forgotten, ‘dust’, is easily blown away and also valueless, just like the deaths which are seen simply as numbers or figures rather than suffering humans.