War Photographer - Carol Ann Duffy Flashcards
What is the first line of this poem?
“In his darkroom he is finally alone”
What is the rhyming scheme for this poem?
ABBCDD - reflects marching
Quote the final line of this poem
“(where) he earns his living and they do not care”
“They” is ambiguous in this poem. Who could it be from “they do not care”?
The audience reading the papers - war is irrelevant to them, why should they help?
The soldiers - a photographer isn’t helping them in their situation as nobody’s stopping the war/ they have too much to deal with, so they can’t care
Give he order of the plosive alliteration place where war occured -
“Beirut. Phnom Penh. Belfast”
“Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh”
How is the photographer also presented as traumatised?
“his hands, which did not tremble then but seem to now” - sounds in the wrong order, chronological order of pre-war to war now.
Give some quotes that show how powerful nature is
“All flesh is grass” - nature will always come through mankind
“ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel” easy to be cheered up by the whether in ordinary situations
“Rural England. Home again” - mankind belongs (with abstract noun home” in rural areas
Complete this quote -
“How the blood…
“stained into foreign dust” - permanant, lonely, scared, don’t belong to war
How does the photographer feel about his role?
“he sought approval without words to do WHAT SOMEONE MUST” - He feels it is his responsibility to record history, even in these horrid situations
How many “agonies” are “in black-and-white”
“A hundred agonies in black-and-white”
How are the fields described in Rural England?
“To fields which don’t explode beneath the feet” - focusing on getting away from war, not towards anthing - fear not hope.
War affects the innocent too. What quotes support this?
“running children in a nightmare heat”
“he remembers the cries of this man’s wife”
“his hands, which did not tremble then though seem to now”
Why is this in present tense?
Because the reader can read this poem at any time and it will still be relevant for all wars, that humanity has still not stopped fighting and killing innocents, That people need to stop fighting. “He is… the only light is…”
Complete the quote:
“The only light is…
red and softly glows”
CONTEXT - Who is Carol Anne Duffy?
She is the poet Laureate - so she’s supposed to record through poetry significant events in Britain especially.
