War Photographer Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is War Photograph about
Duffy was inspired to write this poem by her friendship with a war photographer. She wanted to demonstrate the challenges that this job requires, recording horrific and distressing events
(Suffering of people in deprived areas of the world, memories)
Describe the structure and form
- Rigid structure which contrasts with the chaotic images described in the poem which could suggest that the photographer tries to maintain the strict order of his job to the painful memories he has obtained
What address is it written in
- Third person, allows the reader to observe and evaluate photographers experience of war
‘Spools of suffering’
- Alliteration, conveys traumatic and distressing imagery, suggesting it is never-ending
- Alexandrine shows overflow of emotions by excess of syllables, unable to control them having them pent up
‘Belfast. Beirut. Phnom. Penh’
- Caesura of full stops, provide emphasis and a jolting effect, suggesting memories are debilitating, making him unable to focus on his work
- Plosive sounds could suggest his mind is involuntarily flashing back to war, the images sound like gunfire, attacking and invading him
- One word sentences for each war, hilighting the extense of how significant these wars were
- semantic field of violence
‘All flesh is grass’
- Biblical refrence, wanting to bury his memories, he attempts to comfort himself and rationalise the deaths he has witnessed, hilights cyclical nature of life, flesh returns back to the earth when we die
‘did not tremble’
- this builds on the physical effect, suggesting PTSD showing the toll his memories have on him
‘He has a job to do’
- Short simple sentence, shows him trying to detach himself from the photos and removes the emotional conflict to his photos
- He is fully immersed and lost in his images he cant separate himself from the sadness he feels, the memories are overwhelming, must remain detached for his job but when he is alone his emotion gets to him
‘A half-formed ghost’
- Metaphor shows recurring images of war hilighting the dead
- shows his memories of suffering to haunt him
‘A hundred agonies in black and white’
- ‘hundred agonies’ shows large amounts of victims and suffering
- Juxtaposition of emotive language to detached, presents how the editors dehumanize the pain, the victims have encountered, selling shocking images only focusing on profit
- Could be seen as clear to the editors how horrendous the pictures are
- Connotation of evil from the editors and innocence from the victims, colloquial phrase, ‘black and white’
‘five or six’
- The media exploits the suffering to chose images that are the most scandalous and provocative discarding the rest
- Does not understand the true nature, underplays the atrocities
- careless for peoples pain
‘Eyeballs prick with tears’
- People feel pity than go back to indulgent lives
- Experience images removed from where it is taken, the photographer is in which is juxtaposed to them being in a relaxed state and for entertainment
- highlights callousness and insignificance
- internal rhyme and alliteration of, ‘between the bath and pre-lunch beer’ presents an uplifting atmosphere as they are usually associated with happiness
‘stares impassively’
- Growing acceptance, despite best efforts, photo will make no difference
- overwhelmed by his memories, defeated and desensitized
Capital letters?
She breaks the rule of not having capital letters at the start of every line, this could allude to the fact it is a newspaper article, displaying the layout of one. On the other hand, Duffy breaks the rules of poetry which could convey that he is so broken from his distressing memories, emphasising the horros of war
