Context

• Like Tennyson and Ted Hughes, Duffy was the Poet Laureate.
• Duffy was inspired to write this poem by her friendship with a war photographer. She was intrigued by the challenge faced by these people whose job requires them to record terrible, horrific events without being able to directly help their subjects.
• The location is ambiguous and therefore universal: (“Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.”)