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Carol Ann Duffy was born december 23 1955 in Glassgow, United Kingdom. She is a scottish poet and playwright, and is the first lesbian poet to win the 'Poet Laureate' in 2009. Her poem, "War photographer" was inspired by her friends (Don mcCullin and Phillip Jones Griffits), who was a war photographer, when she learned of the horrific aspects of their job. Duffy's poems often explore themes of love, gender opressionand contemporary culture.

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-> In the photographer's dark room with only dim red lights (line 3 : "The only light is red")

-> set in mid 1980s (post-war)

-> Rural England

-> Memories of the reader go from here to the warzones

-> non-linear narrative

-> In 1998, Duffy was in a program for Channel 4

-> Inspiration to write the poem : difficult decisions a war photographer may face in a war zone

-> She quoted, "Those photographs are in the background but I'm more interested in the photographer...in the dilemma of someone who has that as a job...to go to thesep laces and come back with the images."

-> i.e. the focus of the poem is more about the point of view of a war photographer and their dilemma rather than the images photographed

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Brutality of War :

Duffy's use of imagery conveys the theme 'brutality of war' - highlighting the terrible stories that lie behing every conflict/war. The line, "fields which don't explode beneath the geet of running children in a nightmare heat" uses an expression 'running children' that is generally associated with innocence and happiness, and turns into something horrific using the word 'nightmare.'

The further use of words /phrases such as 'cries', 'pain', 'explode', 'agonies', 'tears', 'spools of suffering', and 'eyeballs prick' are connotations that evoke the tragedy and intense emotional suffering caused by the war.

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In line 6, the poet mentions 3 places :

"Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh"

Belfast (Capital of Ireland) :

-> Intense violence during "The Troubles" - internal conflict in Ireland

-> Religious and nationalist conflict between Protestants and Catholics

Beirut (Capital of lebanon) :

-> Refers to the Lebanese Civil War

-> the conflict further emphasizes on the trauma from the war and the complex relation between war and photography

-> photographer Philip Catuo documented the Lebanese Civil War

-> Street fights during the war endangered Catuo's life, which led him into closer proximity to the war and allowing him to witness the horrific events firsthand. This proximity is captured in the phrases, "nightmare heat" and "blood stained into foreign dust."

Phnom Penh (Capital of Cambodia) :

-> Cambodian-Vietnamese War

-> Don McCullin photographed this conflict and took many disturbing photos, such as of severely injured soldiers

The following phrase, "All flesh is grass" is a biblical allusion to Isiah : 40, emphasizing on how fragile and insignificant our lives are. It describes the feelings of a war photographer, essentially after witnessing the intensity of the war and the number of deaths.

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Alliteration :

"spools of suffering"

"priest preparing"

"Belfast. Beirut."

"between the bath and pre-lunch beers"

Metaphor :

"In his darkroom he is finally alone"

The darkroom is his workspace, but implicitly suggests his state of mind is dark and scary after witnessing the horrific events during the war

"spools of suffering"

the photographs being developed are being compared to the sufferings of the war,

"the blood stained into foreign dust"

blood refers to the violence of the war

foreign dust represents the desolate and unfamiliar warzone

implies that the consequences of the war - the trauma - are permanently embedded in the physical world.

Scars of the war are deeper than just an individual, it leaves a mark on the history of that country

Personification :

"The reader's eyeballs prick with tears"

gives human qualities to the reader's eyeball

suggests the emotional impact of the war is so strong on a person it can cause physical pain

(to the photographers as they witness the happenings on the warzone)

Religious imagery :

"Intone a mass"

To recite a religious ceremony without any intonation

"as though this were a church, and he a priest"

compares his darkroom (workspace) to a church, where the photographer is a priest.

"ordered rows"

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-> 4 six-line stanzas with each stanza ending in a rhyming couplet

-> Its rigid order contrasts the chaotic and disturbing photographs described in the poem/ trying to impose order on the chaos of the war

-> caesura : "...seem to now. Rural England. Home again..."

-> The said form reflects the photographer's "ordered rows" of photos arranged, somehow attempting to restore peace during the wartime.

-> Meter - primarily in 'iambic' (two syllables in an unstressed-stressed pattern) like in line 3 : "The only light is red and softly glows."

-> Rhyme scheme - ABBCDD

-> There is an internal rhyme in line 4 : "were a church."

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https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/war-photographer/

https://poemanalysis.com/carol-ann-duffy/war-photographer/

https://www.gradesaver.com/war-photographer/study-guide/literary-elements

https://www.blitznotes.org/ib/eng-langlit-sl/duffy/war-photographer.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zx3bb9q/revision/7

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Where this symbol appears in the poem:

Line 2: "with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows"

Line 7: "Solutions slop in trays"

Lines 13-15: "A stranger's features / faintly start to twist before his eyes, / a half-formed ghost"

Line 19: "A hundred agonies in black and white"

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Where this symbol appears in the poem: Line 2: "with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows" Line 7: "Solutions slop in trays" Lines 13-15: "A stranger's features / faintly start to twist before his eyes, / a half-formed ghost" Line 19: "A hundred agonies in black and white"