war photographer- carol ann duffy

• context

  → Published in 1985; references Vietnam War

  → “Running children in a nightmare heat” – reference to napalm girl, 9-year-old Kim Phuc, who is running naked toward the camera in agony

  → Published on front page of the New York Times

  → Phuc was named UN Goodwill Ambassador in 1997 and gave speech

  → Duffy is critiquing how over time the impact of war photography is depleting – this single famous photo is not enough recognition of the suffering that endures all over the world

  → Was UK’s first female Poet Laureate from 2009–2019

  → Was appointed to the role as she didn’t support or advocate for traditional convention; not an establishment poet – strongly feminist

  → Had an affinity for those whose occupation was concerned with capturing and crystallising emotion

  → Photographer does so with image; she does so with words
• pain and suffering - “spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”


  → Metaphor

  → Creates imagery of war graves

  → paradoxical to the chaotic suffering was wielded in an ordered form

  → pain of war is placated for the eyes of the western world→ The sibilance in “spool of suffering” is a metaphor for the ways in which the agonies of war were silenced as the “s“ sound is reminiscent of whispering
• pain and suffering - “a hundred agonies in black and white”


  → emotive metaphor shows that photographs are crystallisations of excruciating pain + suffering

  → Noun “agonies” is a metonym for the photographs – we see juxtaposition between how the photographer views them and how the Western world views them

  → Phrase “black and white” is comparatively less emotional and less graphic

  → Reminiscent of something historical and could be a criticism of war

  → Humans have not learnt from the pain – sticking to old ways
• detachment from conflict - “half formed ghost”

  → Imagery “half-formed ghost” has dual meaning:

  →Graphic depiction of a body ravaged by war

  → Literal allusion to a developing but faded image

  →Noun “ghost” has ominous + harrowing connotation

  →Suffering remains faint, distant + supernatural for Western world
• detachment from conflict- religion

  → Extended dichotomy between religion + violence

  → Diametrically opposed ideas represent distance between war + England

  → Semantic field of religion “church“/“priest”/“mass” harshly contrasts the rhetoric of war in verbs “explode”/ “tremble”/ “twist”

  → Photographer’s role is ceremonial and has to make concept of death palatable, mirroring a priest at a funeral

  → Hypocrisy of those in the Western world who claim to uphold Christian values of peace but allow suffering

  → Biblical reference “All flesh is grass” explains the transience of humanity

  → Critique how in time, or conflict, the gravity of individual death reduces

  → Bodies referred to through the noun “flesh” – which dehumanises and collectivises them – no individuality
• form - regular rhyme

  → ABBCDD rhyme scheme to reinforce the imposed order over the chaotic suffering

  → Notion of war is usually softened for the reader – much like the horror in the photographer’s photo are made palatable for the unaccepting audience
• form - equal stanzas

  → Four stanzas of equal length with a regular rhyme scheme

  → Poem “set out in ordered rows” – like photographer’s spools of film

  → Metaphor to reinforce the way order and structure is artificially imposed over the chaos and disorder of war

  → Duffy conveying that as a poet, she empathises with the photographer taking care of the presentation of her message

  → Lack of change to the rigid form throughout the poem could be a metaphor for the photographer’s failure to change the perceptions or actions of his audience – powerless
• structure- cyclical structure

  → Return in an “aeroplane” to enduring cycle of war and agony that stands unchanged despite efforts to evoke sympathy

  → Metaphorical as he’s alienated in the sky and seemingly operates in a liminal realm, where he’s not within the warzone but cannot assimilate with the impassive people in his country of origin

  → Reminder of the internal conflict of a war photographer – it’s a defeating vocation, and results in a relentless, regretful exposure to suffering
• structure - enjambment and caesura

  → Enjambment represents the gradual revealing of the image as the photo develops

  → Caesura reiterates the notion of detachment – “Rural England” is separated between two full stops. This highlights how overly isolated “Rural England” was from the war zone, by installing a visual and audible barrier between it and the rest of the poem