Summary
Highlights
The video begins by introducing Carol Ann Duffy, born in 1955 and the first female and openly bisexual Poet Laureate. 'War Photographer,' published in 1985, is one of her older works. Duffy was friends with war photographers Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths, whose experiences inspired the poem. She stated that her interest was in the 'dilemma' of the photographer and the difficult decisions they face in war zones.
The video explains the traditional darkroom process for developing photographs, a key contextual detail for understanding the poem. Duffy's focus is not on specific images but on the photographer's role and the ethical challenges of capturing and presenting war. A metaphor is drawn between a poet and a war photographer, both creating representations of life for others to examine.
The central theme is identified as 'the impossibility of presenting the true horrors of war or conflict.' The poem has a tightly controlled structure, with four stanzas of six lines and a consistent rhyme scheme. This control ironically contrasts with the chaos of war, suggesting the photographer's futile attempt to impose order or that society sanitizes war's suffering. The unchanging structure also highlights the futility of the photographer's efforts, as nothing truly changes, and people remain unaffected.
Structural devices like caesura ('rural England' separated by full stops) emphasize society's detachment from war. A half-rhyme ('tears' and 'beers') quickens the pace, reflecting how quickly people forget war's horrors. The poem employs a cyclical structure, starting and ending with the photographer's journey to and from war zones, implying a loop of futility and fate, where efforts to raise awareness are consistently ignored.
The poem uses rich language, including symbolism. The 'dark room' and 'red light' have sinister connotations, contrasting with religious imagery like 'church' and 'mass,' suggesting the solemnity of the photographer's work against the evil of war. 'Spools of suffering set out in ordered rows' evokes war graves, highlighting the attempt to sanitize the chaos of death. The phrase 'All flesh is grass' is a biblical intertextual reference (Isaiah 40:6) and to a Christina Rossetti poem, emphasizing the fragility and transitory nature of human life.
Plosive sounds in 'Belfast, Beirut, Phnom Penh' create a staccato, gunfire-like effect, and the caesura forces pauses, making readers confront these place names and the wars associated with them. The 'half-formed ghost' is ambiguous, possibly referring to a developing photograph, a physically maimed person, or a fading memory. The poem's final line, 'he earns his living and they do not care,' leaves 'they' ambiguous, referring to the public, the wider world, or even the readers, highlighting widespread apathy towards suffering.
Ultimately, the poem explores the futility of attempting to express the true reality of conflict. While other poets might struggle to articulate war's horrors, Duffy suggests that even when articulated, societal apathy renders such efforts futile, as people only offer a fleeting glance before moving on. The analysis aims to uncover less obvious aspects of the poem's meaning.