War Photographer

• Context

  • reference to famous photo of a girl in a napalm attack
  • Poet is bitter about the indifferent way in which people view modern welfare through newspaper
• Structure 


  Cyclical

  > Futile repetition and continuation of past mistakes

  > Poem ends on sad note

  Religious imagery in first stanza

  > Importance of photographers job

  6 line stanza and rhyming

  > reflects orderly process

  Mid line rhyme

  > "tears" and "beers"

  > Quickens pace to show how fast we move on and forget

  Cesura

  > e.g "rural England" Separated by two full stops, reflects how society easily separated from reality of war
• "As though this were a church and he a priest"

  Religious simile

  > parallel between a priest and war photographer- both exposed to death and suffering

  > Significance of photographers work

  > Sombre tone

  Symbolism

  > Church- is a place of repent, reflection and contemplation

  > Priest- figure of authority and moral guidance

  > Comparing highlights moral and ethical responsibilities

  > witnesses of atrocities of war
• Carol and Duffy


  Poet born in 1955, currently the Poet Laureate (first female and first openly bisexual Poet Laureate)
• War photographer poem published


  1985
• Carol and Duffy was friends with Don McCullen and Philip Jones Griffiths, famous war photographers
• Carol and Duffy was more interested in the dilemma of the war photographer, rather than the specific images
• "all flesh is grass"


  Historic Intertextual reference to the bible

  > Highlighting fragility of life

  > Something people have been writing for thousands and years and yet we still ignore it
• "Belfast. Beruit. Phnom Penh."

  Plosives

  > Gun fire pace

  > Disrupts peace from before

  Cesura

  > breaks up lines

  > Forces to stop and think about the war torn countries

  > Criticises how we don't stop about the reality of war
• "Half-formed ghost"


  Ambiguous tone

  > link to mutilation

  > memory, not fully remembered
• "they do not care"


  Ambiguity- who is "they"

  > is it public?

  > wider world apathetic approach

  > Readers who read and quickly move on and forget