war photographer

Question 1

what happen in the poem

Answer 1

• having returned from a war zone, a war photographer is in a darkroom developing photographs.
• a photo of a man begins to developed and the photographer remembers the cries of the mans wife when he took the photo.
• a handful of photographs will appear in the Sunday supplement. the poet insinuates the readers care only momentarily about the deaths.

Question 2

for, structure and context

Answer 2

• each regular , six stanza xcontains two pairs of rhyming couplets, reflecting the ordered rows and neatness of the photographer, in an other otherwise chaotic world of war.
• the first three stanzas document the photographers actions and thought process. while the last stanza deals withe the Sunday supplement.
• in line 12 there are poignant echoes of phan thi kim phuc in the famous napalm girl photograph, taken by nick ut at trang bang during the vietnam warin 1972

Question 3

key quotes

Answer 3

• spools of suffering set out in ordered rows
• he, a priest prepared to intone a mass
• he has a job to do. solutions slop in trays
• running children in a nightmare heat
• a strangers features … a half formed ghost
• he remembers the cries of this mans wife
• blood stained into foreign dust
• a hundred agonies in black and white
• where he earns his living and they do not care.

Question 4

what poem would you compare with memory, individual experiences and effects of conflict in

Answer 4

• kamikaze
• remains
• bayonet charge

Question 5

language and themes

Answer 5

• Duffy contrasts the people in the poem. she describes the cries pf the strangers wife alongside the token tears shed by the readers of the Sunday supplement
• religious imagery is used to compare the photographer to a priest
• the photographer appears more at home in the mist of the war zone that at home
• the photographer feels anger at those who feign interest