war photographer

• context of war photographer

  • a war photographer is developing photos that he has taken in war zones across the world
  • being back in England contrasts from the war zone to now being safe and calm
  • a photo begins to develop and the photographer remembers the cries from a wife from the death of a man
  • the final stanza focuses on the people in England who will see the photos and won't care about the people or places
• Carol Ann Duffy

  a Scottish poet who published war photographer in 1985
• the big idea and purpose

  • horror of war
  • victims of conflict
• feeling and attitudes

  • pain -the photographs depict real pain and the emotional pain towards the woman who lost her husband. This contrasts to the pain of war and ordinary pain back home
  • detachment - the photographer is detached from his emotions in the war zone so he can do his job. The words 'finally alone' and 'impassively' suggest that this makes him detached from his life in England
  • anger - the poem ends with anger towards the people who don't care about the suffering of others
• form:

  • the poem has 4 stanzas and an equal rhyme scheme
  • 'set out in ordered rows' which echoes the care that the photographer has over his work
  • the use of enjambement reflects the gradual revealing of the photo as it develops
• structure:

  • the poem follows the actions and thoughts of the photographer in his dark room
  • a distinct change when he remembers a death at the start of the 3rd stanza
  • the final stanza's focus shifts to the way the photographers work is received
• religious imagery:

  • references to religion suggest that the photographer is a priest conducting a funeral as he develops the phots
  • there's a sense of ceremony to his actions
• emotive language:

  • the poem is full of powerful and emotive imagery which reflects the horrors of war which are captured in the photos
  • like the photography, Duffy tries to represent the true horror of conflict in her work to make the reader acknowledge the subject
• contrast:

  • the poem presents ' Rural England' to contrast the war zones
  • the grieving widow is compared to the people whose eyes 'prick with tears' at the pain
  • ironically the photographer is detached in the war zones but is deeply effected at home