War Photographer Flashcards
“In his Darkroom”
The intimate and tranquil setting of his dark room. He’s normally surrounded by chaos and values this time alone - enjambment creates a sense of reflection. The word choice has connotations of a serious, brooding, bleak, grim place: perhaps could be a metaphor suggesting the job takes the photographer to a dark place mentally: anxiety, stress, and horror. This could also suggest isolation.
“Finally, alone”
Inversion places these words at the end of the line for emphasis. ‘Finally,’ suggests he has been longing for solitude, desperate to escape someone or something. The emphasis of being ‘alone’ reflects the loneliness of his job: separated from his subject, his editors, and his readers. This suggests the isolation the photographer experiences due to his job.
“Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”.
Repetition of the constant sound ‘s’ suggests the suffering is long and almost never-ending. The repetition of the constant sound ‘s’ and the vowel sound ‘o’ mirrors the repetition of the spools of film laid out on the photographer’s table: each sound is clearly and methodically marked out: mirroring the repetitive, meticulous arrangement of the canisters of film. The ‘ordered rows’ recall the image of rows of tombstones or ranks of soldiers creating a link to the horrors of war that are depicted in the films themselves, ‘ordered’ suggests the WP is trying to make sense of/restore order to the horror and chaos he sees as a result of his job.
“The only light is red and softly glows”.
‘only’ builds on the idea of loneliness and solitude, ‘red’ symbolises danger and blood - what the WP deals in photos of. It also suggests a ‘Sanctuary lamp’ which contributes to the stanza’s extended religious image. ‘Softly glows’ adds to the genteel atmosphere of this safe, quiet, lonely room back home, away from all the horror and stress of his job.
“As though this were a church and he/ a priest preparing to intone a mass”.
The developing room is compared to a church, the photographer to a priest and his work is compared to preparations for a mass. Just as a priest gives/sacrifices his life to his work and is exposed to death and suffering. So too the WP is consumed by a vocation to record acts of war at great personal sacrifice as he puts himself in an environment which immense danger and risk.
“Beirut, Belfast. Phnom Penh”
The punctuation is blunt and functional (like the photographer’s work), Sounds like a rollcall perhaps suggesting they are simply examples from a much longer list. These are places which have suffered from the ravages of civil war or genocide. The short sentences create impact, the plosive ‘B’ and ‘P’ sound like bullets and the repetition is used to show that war is repeated throughout history, will continue and is almost never-ending.
“All flesh is grass “
This is a biblical quotation. In its full context, the phrase is used to illustrate that the word of God is eternal and consistent with human life which is transient and brief. In the context in the poem this ties in with the religious imagery. It has already been suggested that the photographer is spreading an important message through his photos (as a priest spreads the word of God). This quotation develops that idea, highlighting how the suffering the photographer shoots is constantly changing and ongoing, but his photos succeed in capturing it and making it permanent. The rhyming of ‘mass’ and ‘grass’ as well as the mention of Phnom Pehn might also invoke the idea of mass graves or burial sites, where the bodies of victims of genocide/war decompose and literally turn to grass in the soil.
“He has a job to do “
Literally refers to the job of developing the photos, but also refers to his overall job of war photography. Short, simple, and blunt: reflecting the blunt, matter-of-fact approach the photographer must take to his work. Perhaps this is a justification or excuse for his job.
“solutions slop “
The double meaning of the literal liquid is used to develop the pictures but is also a metaphor for the solutions to war. This suggests the solutions to war are sloppy and messy. The word ‘slop’ and the alliteration of the ‘s’ sound suggest the sloshing of the liquid. This emphasizes how the ‘solutions’ (literal and figurative) are messy, volatile, or difficult to deal with. There is also the idea that the solutions to war lie in the pictures that he develops. The contrast between the messiness of war and the orderliness of his home is a running theme in the poem.
“Hands which did not tremble then/ though seem to know “
The photographer’s hands are steady when taking the photos - they must be, otherwise, the pictures would be blurry and unusable. In contrast, when he gets home and he does not need to suppress his emotions, his hands tremble with fear/anxiety. The enjambment emphasizes the contrast by putting ‘though seem to know’ on a new line.
“Rural England”
This minor sentence shifts the poem to the photographer’s home, The word ‘rural’ connotes a perfect, countryside life: leafy, green, peaceful, natural, and calm. This contrasts with the other places named in stanza one which were exactly the opposite: urban, harsh, volatile, and dangerous.
“Ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel”.
Pain, by definition, is something unexpected - a reaction to something unusual and unpleasant: it is never ordinary. The oxymoron ‘ordinary pain’, then, makes the reader consider what is meant by the photographer. The kind of pain experienced in ‘rural England’ is not really pain at all (metaphorical pain), but unhappiness that can be solved by mere sunshine. This makes us wonder what kind of pain is experienced abroad: it must be a terrible, agonizing, serious, and real pain.
“Fields which don’t explode beneath the feet/ of running children in a nightmare”.
This seems a peculiar sentence: of course, we don’t expect fields to explode. In England, fields are part of comfortable, rural life. These lines emphasise the terrible contrast between this life, and the ‘nightmare’ life in a war zone (which might contain minefields).
“Something is happening “
“Something is happening “
Just like the second stanza, the third starts with a vague, simple sentence. The ‘something’ is ambiguous: literally a photograph is developing, but something else is happening too - the photographer is experiencing all the associated feelings and memories that the photo holds for him. He is being transported back to the moment of taking the picture.
“A stranger’s features/ slowly start to twist before his eyes A half-formed ghost “
The photograph begins to develop. The word ‘twist’ is a verb with connotations of pain, anguish, horror, or shock. This may be because the man in the photo is dying or in pain, or it may reflect the anguish of the photographer himself. The man in the photo has become a ghost. This suggests his death. Perhaps too, the photographer is ‘haunted’ by the ghost.
