War Photographer

• Context: Carol Ann Duffy

  • Poet Laureate from 2009-2019
  • Friends with two famous war photographer hence why she is interested in the difficulties and responsibilities posed by their role
• Context: War photographer

  • Published in 1985, ten years after the Vietnam war
  • A contemporary reader would be aware that the line "running children in a nightmare heat" is a reference to a famous photo of a girl in a napalm attack
  • This photo caused the public to protest against the war, which contrasts with society today in which war photography is largely ignored
• "In his darkroom finally alone"

  • This setting of the darkroom creates a foreboding atmoshphere
• "spools of suffering set out in ordered rows"

  • Ironic that something so chaotic and cruel is now laid out in peaceful ordered rows
• "as though this were a church and he were a priest preparing to intone a Mass"

  • Religious simile
  • Reveals he is aware of the impact his photos have on the public
  • Parallel between the job of a priest and a war photographer
  • Both are exposed to death and suffering
  • Suggests his mood is somber
• "Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass"

  • References to conflicts
  • "all flesh is grass" is a phrase from the Old Testament, which is often interpreted as meaning life is fleeting
• "which did not tremble then though seem to now"

  • It seems that at the scene of the conflict he was calm but now he is agitated
  • Perhaps as he will soon relive the conflict through the photos he is developing
• "Rural England. Home again to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel"

  • In England problems are trivial and a sunny day can make it all better
  • This contrasts with the wartorn settings he has been in where pain, both emotional and physical, is devastating.
• "A stranger's features faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost"

  • Metaphor
  • This line refers to the process of the photograph coming into focus in a developing tray but also gestures towards perhaps his dying agonies
  • The man is a 'half-formed ghost' in that his image hasn't fully developed but also alludes to the fact he has died
• "He remembers the cries"

  • Auditory imagery
  • Develops the horrific image created
• "a hundred agonies in black and white" "five or six for Sunday's supplement"

  • The agonies of war are curated for the Sunday supplementary papers.
  • This seems distasteful
  • Shows the apathy of the people in England
• "The reader's eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers"

  • The choice of "eyeballs" instead of eyes suggests the act of crying is almost mechanical, a reflex.
  • Suggests the crying is not genuine, and it a superficial emotional response
  • "Eyeballs" is also an ugly word, reflects the ugliness of the readers disingenuous respone
  • Between the bath and pre-lunch beers shows how insignificant the conflict is to readers
• "They do not care"

  • Whilst the readers were seemily moved to tears, the photographer believes them to be superficial
• Perspective

  • Third person
  • Reflects the feelings of detachment the photographer experiences at the scenes of conflict- allow him to do his job
  • He appears a solitary figure, alienated by his fellow citizens
• Rigid form

  • tight form of six lines per stanza and a constant ABBCDD rhyme scheme, which juxtaposes the chaos caused by conflict and perhaps reflects the order of "Rural England"
  • could reflect the meticulous way the photographer works as he places his photos in 'ordered rows'
  • perhaps he is trying to maintain a sense of normality or control his thoughts/emotions/memories which perhaps threaten to overwhelm him
• Cyclical Structure

  • ends by describing the photographer returning from a warzone he came from on the 'aeroplane'. This cyclical structure creates a sense of futile repetition and continuation of past mistakes and acts as evidence that the photographer's work has not changed anything