War Photographer Flashcards
Who wrote War Photographer
Carol Ann Duffy
What is War Photographer about
a war photographer is in his darkroom developing picture that he has taken in war zones across the world, a photo begins to develops and the photographer remembers the death of the man and the cries of his wife, the final stanza focuses on the people in England who will see his photographs in their Sunday papers, the speaker thinks that they don’t really care about the people and places in the photos
What is the form of War Photographer
4 stanzas of equal length and a regular rhyme scheme - ‘set out in ordered rows’ like a photographer’s spools echoing the care that the photographer takes over his work, enjambment - gradual revealing of the photo as it develops
What is the structure of War Photographer
follows the actions and thoughts of the photographer in his darkroom ,distinct change at the start of the third stanza when the photographer remember a specific death, in the final stanza the focus shifts to the way the photographer’s work in recieved
What is the contrasts of War Photographer
the poem presents ‘Rural England’ as a constats to the war zones the photographer visits, the grieving widow is compared with people in England whose eyes only ‘prick with tears’ at the pain, ironically the photographer is detached in the war zone sbu deeply affected at home, ‘spools of suffering set out in ordered rows’ - described like graves, ‘Belfast’ ‘Beirut’ - plosive sounds break the soft mood like gunfire, ‘tears’ ‘beers’ - the rhyme emphasises the short duration of the reader pain
What is the emotive language of War Photographer
full of powerful emotive language which reflects the horrors of war seen by the photographer an captured in his photos, Duffy tried to convey the try horror of conflict in her work in order to makes the reader think about the subject, ‘half-formed ghost’ - the picture is still developing but also suggests the body has been mutilated, ‘blood stained’ - lasting impact of war, ‘a hundred agonies in black and white’ - emotive metaphor to describe the photos having the pictures printed seems to confirm the suffering they show
What are the feelings and attitudes of War Photographer
pain - the photographs depict real pain and there is also the emotional pain of the women who has lost her husband, the horrific pain in contrasted with the ‘ordinary’ back pain home, detachment - he is detached from his emotions in the war zones so he can do his job, anger - the poem ends with a sense of anger at the people who do not care about the suffering of others
What are the themes of War Photographer
effects of conflict, reality of conflict, memory, negative emotions - anger, negative emotions - guilt, individual experience
What language/techniques does War Photographer have
contrasts and emotive language
