WAR PHOTOGRAPHER Flashcards
GIVE WAR PHOTOGRAPHER QUOTATIONS
“spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
“All flesh is grass”
“A hundred agonies in black-and-white
“The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre lunch beers”
“spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
Duffy uses the harsh sibilance in “spools of suffering set out in ordered rows” to remind us of the harsh world the photographer has captured in his work. The spools are personified to be “suffering” which highlights the agony that these pictures possess and bring to live once developed.
Furthermore, Duffy describes the “ordered rows” of the photos as the imagery is synonymous with the ranks of soldiers which were ordered or alternatively the rows of graves for those who were massacred in conflict.
“All flesh is grass”
Duffy illustrates the transitory nature of human life through the bible reference to Isaiah 46 “All flesh is grass”. The metaphor exhibits how fleeting and fragile life is and although it has been written about for hundreds of years shown by the historic intertextual references, it is still continuously ignored by society.
“Reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers”
Duffy shows the normalisation of the war to the readers in the comfort of their home as she juxtaposes the sadness of “tears” with the trivial luxuries of the “bath and pre-lunch beers”. Resultantly, Duffy indicates a fleeting, surface-level compassion from the subjects of the image with the verb “prick” showing the fleeting nature of their sadness.
Explain the form and structure of War Photographer
The poem is composed of regular stanzas, each with 6 lines as well as using a regular ABBCDD rhyme scheme. This regularity represents how the photographer’s job is to give order to the chaos of the war.
“A hundred agonies in black-and-white”
Duffy compares the events captured in the photographs as a “hundred agonies in black-and-white” with the distressing noun of “agonies” displaying the torture of those pictured. Furthermore, Duffy utilises the colour imagery of “black-and white” to suggest that the photos are merely simplified for the newspapers which reinforces how the audience receives a small portion from the large disaster it was taken from.
