war photographer: Carol Ann Duffy

• Sunday's supplement '

  plosive + sibilant sounds, readers spits the words out, may hint at the impact of war is useless and not worthy of a main feature in a newspaper
• a ... agonies in ... and white '


  hundred, black

  emotive metaphor, describes the photos confirms and solidifying the suffering they show
• a stranger's ... faintly start to twist ... his eyes, a half ... ghost '


  features, before, formed

  metaphor, focusing on one photo makes it personal and emphasises the real suffering of war but suggests his body has been mutilated, photograph is developing
• quotes: ' something is ... . '

  Volta (turning point) short simple sentence switches to personal cost of war, remembers a specific death
• quotes: ' running ... in ... heat. '


  children, nightmare

  reference to Vietnam war, tragedy of war
• quotes: ' rural england . '


  soft sounds contrast with place names in stanza one as they all experienced war
• quotes: ' he has a job to do. '


  short simple sentence, monosyllabic words, he has to put his emotions aside like other soldiers
• quotes: ' from the ... he stares impassively at where he earns his living and they do ... care. '


  aeroplane, not

  returns to war zone, cyclical, sense of futile repetition of past mistakes, work of the photographer hasn't changed anything -> ambiguous refers to anyone and they don't care about suffering

  impassively: not showing or feeling emotion
• quotes: ' tears' 'beers'


  internal rhyme, tears are replaced with beers, short duration of pain
• quotes: ' the readers ... prick with tears '


  eyeballs

  metaphor suggests that their thoughts/ tears are metaphorical/ inhuman, not truly affected by photos, only physical response or tears and don't have a genuine response
• quotes: ' Belfast. Beirut. Phnom. Penh. '


  plosive sounds - breaks soft mood like gunfire, names places where wars have happened + mini short plosive sounds
• quotes: ' only ... is red and softly ... as though this were a ... and he is a priest preparing to ... a mass. '


  light, glows, church, intone

  simile, seriousness of his work, solemn act almost like a funeral mass (graveyard) parallel - priest and war photographer both exposed to pain, death + suffering, -> ironic could begin to question God
• quotes: ' spools of ... in ordered rows. '


  suffering

  reels of soldiers are described like soldiers or rows of war graves (metaphor) - (paradox) chaos + suffering are reduced to something ordered physical reminder of suffering
• quotes: ' all flesh is ... .'


  grass

  bible reference 40:6 human life is temporary
• quotes: ' blood ... into foreign dust. '


  stained

  'Stained' lasting trauma of war and soldiers due to unnamed in wars so therefore are forgotten
• quotes: ' his ... which did not tremble then '


  hands

  irony as he did not feel the horror of war (calm in the face of horror) but now they affect him
• quotes: ' ... he is finally alone'


  darkroom

  hints at subject matter of photographs, his purpose is dark, juxtaposes the isolation he feels vs chaos of war
• language, structure, form

  religious bibical references

  similes

  irony

  emotive metaphors

  plosives (B and P)

  sibilance

  4 stanzas equal length

  internal rhyme scheme

  enjambment - gradual reveal of photograph as it develops

  focus on actions + thoughts -> change is specific to death -> how work is perceived
• theme: individual experiences

  -london

  -prelude

  -bayonet charge

  -remains

  -poppies

  -emigreé

  -kamikaze
• guilt

  -remains
• theme: anger


  -london

  -checking out me history
• theme: memory


  -prelude

  -my last duchess

  -remains

  -poppies

  -emigreé

  -kamikaze
• theme: reality of conflict

  -charge of the light brigade

  -exposure

  -bayonet charge

  -remains
• theme: effect of conflict

  -charge of the light brigade

  -exposure

  -bayonet charge

  -remains

  -poppies

  -kamikaze
• themes:

  -effects of conflict

  -reality of conflict

  -memory

  -anger

  -guilt

  -individual experiences
• context of war photographer?

  Scottish poet, in 2009 became first woman to hold poet laureate, wp published in 1985, conversations with 2 war photographers, horrors of war, people treated as abstract images, Vietnam war photo