War Photographer

Question 1

Context
Structure/form
Message

Answer 1

Carol Ann Duffy -
Scottish poet/playwrite, had a friend who was a war photographer, she also tends to talk about voices that aren’t usually heard in society.
Structure/form -
The poem has four stanzas of equal length and a regular rhyme scheme. The use of enjambent reflects the gradual revealing of the photo as it develops.
It follows the actions and thoughts of the photographer in their darkroom.

Question 2

Quotation 1 ~ “suffering set out in ordered rows”

Answer 2

“suffering set out in ordered rows”

• reels of films are described like soldiers or like rows of war graves. Paradox - chaos and suffering are reduced to something ordered.

Question 3

Quotation 2 ~ “simple weather can dispel”

Answer 3

“Simple can dispel”

• the fact that it’s sunny may make someone happy but the photographer cannot feel this - causing a fuss over something simple
• the poet wants the reader to feel that their problems are nothing in comparison the the battles faced at war.

Question 4

Quotation 3 ~ “a half-formed ghost”

Answer 4

“A half formed ghost”

• “half-formed” as the photo is still developing, or could demonstrate a mutilated body
• someone that was shot
• the thoughts haunt him

Question 5

Quotation 4 ~ “Sunday’s supplement”

Answer 5

“Sunday’s supplement”

• a magazine that comes out of the newspaper
• showing that the photos are not ‘good enough’ for the actual newspaper.
• anger coming from the photographer.

Question 6

Quotation 5 ~ “foreign dust”

Answer 6

“Foreign dust”

• uniting and coming together (linking to like 6 - all the capitals of the different countries “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh”)