War Photographer Flashcards
Who wrote War photographer
Carol Ann Duffy
What is the poem literally about
A war photographer is describing developing images where a photo will be chosen for the Sunday paper and the horrific nature of this job and how readers are blind to the suffering
What is Duffy critiquing in the poem
How the western world has become indifferent (unconcerned) to the suffering of war.
What war does the poem refer to
Vietnam war
Was Duffy poet Laurette
Yes
The war photographer is conflicted about his job why? The war photographer is also like s soldier why?
Should he take photographs or help the victims. As he experiences war first hand and has to withhold his emotions in a war zone
Is the structure of the stanzas regular or irregular? And what does each stanza end in
In regular 6 line stanzas each ending in a rhyming couplet
It is written in a ________ structure
cyclic structure (story follows in a circular pattern)
What are the 2 main themes
Brutality of war, effects of conflict
‘______ of suffering ___ ___ in ordered ____’
‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
- metaphor - links to rows of war graves
- suffering could link to Christ = dead are reborn in the photos to teach us something
- Sibilance gives foreboding (something bad will happen) tone
- Duel pain (those affected by war and the photographer witnessing it)
‘A _______ agonies in _____ and _____’
‘A hundred agonies in black and white’
- Metaphorical representation of victims pain
- Sympathy for those experiencing war and the photographer documenting the horrific events
- hundreds = extent of agony he’s witnessed
- By reducing the photographs to the emotions they convey, it establishes the theme of the trauma and suffering of war
‘his _____ which did not _______ then though ____ to ___’
‘his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now’
- Hands must be steady when taking photo = must hide emotions
- Enjambment = shift from warzone to studio
- When he reflects he feels anxiety = inescapable effects of war
