War Photographer

• context

  Napalm Girl’ was an image taken by a war photographer that shared the reality and impact of war with the world and contributed to cessation of the Vietnam War.  Carol Ann Duffy was friends with two war photographers in the 1980s (when the poem was written) and was inspired to write about both the power of images and the moral conflict experienced by the photographers who take them. 
• form

  -four stanzas of equal length and regular scheme ~ enjambment represents the gradual revealing of the photo as it develops.
• structure

  -follows actions of the photographer in the dark room.

  -There is a distinct change at the start of stanza 3 as the photographer remembers a specific death.

  -Final stanza shifts focus to the way the photographers work is received.
• Religious Imagery

  -creates a sense of ceremony as she remembers the deaths. As if she is a priest conducting a funeral.
• Contrasts

  -Rural England (where she lives) compared to the war zone.

  -She is grieving compared to the people in England who only feel sad based on what they read and see on the news. Ironic as she is detatched from war but is deeply affected
• emotions: pain

  Photos depict real pain (physical and emotional) and the horrific pain war causes is contrast with 'ordinary' pain back home that people deem the end of the world. Criticises the lack of empathy that people have who have not experienced the tragedies of war.
• emotions: detatchment

  he has to detatch himself from the conflicts so he can do his job.
• emotions: anger

  poem ends with a sense of anger at the people who don't care about the suffering that is happening to innocent people and are happy because it is not affecting them.
• "...spools of suffering set out in ordered rows"

  -> metaphor - describes photographs through pain and trauma as if the images haunt him. ~ speakers PTSD even if he is only a spectator not a soldier.

  -> "spools" ~ shows extent and of magnitude of suffering that he witnessed.

  -> sibilance ~ creates sinister atmosphere emphasising his distress. -- he craves peace and silence after the scenes of violence he witnessed.

  -> "ordered" juxtaposes the chaos - desperate to gain control and order back on his emotions
• "Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass."

  -> Rule of 3 - extent of the unrest in the world.

  -> Caesura ~ pause in between cities (individual sentences) ~ paying respects to places damaged by the violence of conflict.

  -> "All flesh is grass." ~ metaphor for all the dead bodies that are covering the ground will eventually compose int grass and be forgotten.

  Biblical Allusion ~ reflects on how frivolously we treat human life and how we take it foe granted.
• purpose

  to highlight the harsh realities of war and question the reason to why this is happening