War Photographer Quotes & Analysis Flashcards
With spools of suffering set out in ordered rows
Imposes structure on the chaos of war- perhaps photographer trying to impose order on chaos on mind
Suggestion of mass graves/ bodies
In his darkroom he is finally alone
‘Darkroom’ is literally a room for developing photographs
The word dark perhaps suggests the job takes the photographer to a dark place mentally
‘Finally’ suggests that he has been longing to escape someone or something
Being ‘alone’ reflects the loneliness of his job: separated from his subject, his editor and his readers
The only light is red and softly glows,
As though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to atone a mass
Red- Blood and slaughter
Implies how serious the photographer takes his job like a priest would/photographer uses work to spread the word. He is trying to lead people and make them see the truth.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
Lists places where wars still raged when the poem was written/each one a separate conflict- the world is full of war.
All flesh is grass- Stresses the shortness of life, especially for those in war torn areas
He has a job to do
Blunt, matter-of-fact sentence- perhaps attitude the photographer has to adopt to get the job done
Solutions slop in trays
Literally chemicals to develop photographs
Metaphorically the fact that the photographer does not have solutions to war, it’s complex, hard to pin down, messy
‘Slop’ word choice implies carelessness
Beneath his hands which did not tremble then
Though seem to now.
Why did they not tremble then? Why now?
The reader is left to think about how the war photographer could function well in a war zone and be calm there but here at home the emotional impact hits him.
Rural England.
Word choice suggests safe and easy life of westerners. This is developed later with ‘fields’- in rural England these are safe and beautiful. In a war zone they can be filled with mines and danger.
Home again
To ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel
Oxymoron- ‘Ordinary pain’- Can pain ever be ordinary? And word choice of ‘simple’. The language suggests that you cannot compare the trivial ‘problems’ experienced by pampered westerners with the chaos and pain of living through conflict
To fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
Of running children in nightmare heat
Imagery and Contrast: Image of barefoot children running in grass for fun (in rural England) is twisted by the contrasting description of the war zone- children running for their lives and being blown up by mines. Nightmare heat suggests the unbearable, inescapable pain of the war zone and the idea that it’s a horror only our imaginations can understand. Nightmare also introduces the war photographer being haunted by images of the war.
Ordinary pain
True meaning to the poem- contrast between the comfortable (and complacent) lives of those in the west as opposed to people suffering in war zones.
Something is happening
As in previous stanza, short, simple sentence- we have a matter of fact sentence but the meaning isn’t clear. What is happening? We know there’s a change.
A strangers features
Faintly start to twist before his eyes,
Word choice- the use of the verb ‘twist’ suggests face contorted in pain, agony and also that the photographer is beginning to recall the moment
A half-formed ghost
Imagery- literal and metaphoric- the actual photo of the man is beginning to develop in his darkroom, to come into focus. Speaking figuratively it implies that the war photographer is now being haunted by the dying man he saw in the war zone
He remembers the cries
Of this mans wife, how he sought approval
Word choice- photographer’s dilemma- has a job to do and needs to take the photo but has feelings of guilt about standing back like a voyeur (observer)
He is torn between doing the job and intruding on the misery of others. Grief is a very private emotion. He needs to make it public to get the world to care.
Word choice- ‘remembers the cries’- the sound of the wife’s sorrow, her anguished cries- builds the intensity of the memory. The use of sensory description (sound) shows us how real the memory is to him.
Without words to do what someone must
And how the blood stained into foreign dust
Description makes the audience think about the situation more carefully. A stain is lasting, hard to remove- as people’s blood stains the land there is a strong image that their country is being marked and changed by these deaths. The use of ‘foreign’ moves back to fact that the war photographer comes from a country living in peace who may see the war zone as too far away to care about. Here foreign reminds us they’re different from us.
A hundred agonies in black and white
Metaphor-photographs literally monochrome/ yet figuratively they become manifestations of pain, each one telling a story of pain and suffering. Black and white could be linked to: Photo Good/Evil Truth/Lies
From which his editor will pick out five or six
For Sunday’s supplement.
Word choice- from literally ‘hundreds’ of photographs the editor ‘pick’ a mere few to suit the article; they don’t convey the full horror of war/ suggests this is done in a casual, off-hand way. We see that the war photographers work isn’t appreciated.
The readers eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
The phrase ‘prick with tears’ suggests the sensation of almost crying: considered alongside the short duration of the readers’ distress, this is a clear criticism of their shallow response to the horrifying pictures. The words ‘bath’ and ‘pre-lunch beers’ also suggest luxury and indulgence which is in stark contrast to the lives of those captured on film by the photographer.
Contrast to war zone- easy life, images and suffering soon forgotten as life goes on.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
He earns his living and they do not care.
Photographer is en route to another assignment: poem is cyclical. Unceasing wars
Who are they? Tone is very critical of newsreaders and of readers generally. Are we, the reader, included in ‘they’- are we different to the newspaper readers? Are we OK with our reaction?
Suggests the photographs become mere entertainment/ short lived and sensational also finishes the idea of emotional detachment- they care about something different.
