War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy Flashcards
‘in his darkroom he is finally alone’
adverb finally - shows the intensity of work and he feels comfort from being away from war zones despite it being his job
darkroom - word play - means the place where the photos are processed but also dark has connotations of evil and suffering, which is exactly what he is having to witness and the room that he is in is filled with acts of tyranny and horror
‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’
metaphor - he processes them so orderly juxtaposes what he is processing i the opposite of order, they are photos of suffering and pain.
sibilant - emphasise sinister nature of war.
‘belfast. beirut’
caesura creates a parallel to war, sudden and abrupt, unexpected
‘as though this were a church and he/ a priest’
similes gives photographer a sense of power and spiritual authority, juxtaposing to the reality of the situation, he is actually powerless.
“All flesh is grass”
metaphor is used to illustrate that the word of God is eternal and consistent compared to human life which is transient and brief.
In this context in the poem, this ties in with the religious imagery. It has already been suggested that the photographer is spreading an important message through his photos (as a priest spreads his messgae through the word of God). This quotation develops that highlighting how the suffering the photographer shoots is constantly changing and on-going because photos succeed in capturing it and making it permanent.
The rhyming of ‘mass’ and grass’ as well as the mention of Phnom Penh might also invoke the mass graves or burial sites, where the bodies/victims of genocide/war decompose and literally turn to grass in the soil.
The juxaposition of this phrase with the list of which is perhaps an ironic comment: yes, all human life ends eventually, but in such places as these it ended much sooner.
“Alone…ordered rows…only…softly glows…as though…intone… Phnom Penh”
Assonance
The vowel sound ‘o (oh)’ is repeated throughout the first stanza. This recurring sound reflects the priest intoning a Mass - solemn, low and the sound adds to the serious atomsphere.
“He has a job to do”
short sentence - Short, simple and blunt: reflecting the blunt, matter of fact approach the photographer has to work with. Perhaps this is a justification or an excuse for a job?
“solutions slop”
The noun solutions means literally the liquid used to develop the pictures. It also suggests ‘the solutions for a problem’. In this case, the answer/solution to the problem of war is sloppy.
regular 6 line stanzas
The poem is laid out in four regular six-line stanzas, with each stanza ending in a rhyming couplet. This structure is interesting since its very rigid order contrasts with the chaotic, disturbing images described in the poem.
context:
Duffy wrote the poem due to her friendship with a war photographer. She was intrigued with a particular challenge that war photographers faced – recording horrific events without being able to do anything to help the subjects.
