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* the poet's word choice and what effect this has on the
reader
The list below outlines several things that are in the text. But they are not placed in
the order in which they appear in the poem. Put them into the correct order.
The man has been to all the trouble spots of the world
Look back at part 1 and the quotes you found which describe setting.
Techniques:
sentence structure - a short direct sentence
imagery - a picture appears in the reader's mind
onomatopoeia - the sound of an action is heard in the sound the word makes
simile - a comparison using "like" or "as"
alliteration - words beside or close to each other begin with the same letter
The simile which compares him to a priest shows how seriously he takes
his job, and how (by photographing them) he stands up for those who
cannot help themselves. His darkroom resembles a church in which his red
light is like a coloured lantern. The image is also appropriate because, like
a priest, he teaches how fragile we are and how short life is. ("All flesh is
grass" is a quotation from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Isaiah
contrasts the shortness of human life with eternal religious truths - "the
Word of the Lord" which "abides forever"). In the poem, the sentence
follows a list of names. These are places where life is even briefer than
normal, because of wars.
pictures with his attitude as he develops them. If his hands shake when
he takes pictures, they won't be any good, but in the darkroom he can
allow his hands to tremble. This suggests that the full impact of the
photographs is brought home to him only now. "Solutions" refers literally
to the developing fluid in the trays, but also suggests the idea of solving
the political problems which cause war - "solutions" which he does not
have, of course. Duffy contrasts the fields in England with those abroad -
as if the photographer thinks English fields unusual for not being
minefields. The image is shocking, because he thinks of land mines as
exploding not under soldiers but under "the feet of running children".
In writing about the poem try to focus on some of these details. Look also
at the poem's form. This form is quite traditional - the rhyme scheme and
metre are the same in each stanza (there are rhyming couplets on the
second and third lines and on the last two lines; each line is a pentameter,
which will be familiar to you from Shakespeare's plays).
Duffy obviously feels something in common with her subject - she uses his
experience to voice her own criticism of how comfortable Britons look at pictures of
suffering, but do not know the reality. She sees the photographer (far removed from
the paparazzi of the tabloids) as both priest and journalist. The reader's response to the
Sunday newspaper is almost like going to church - for a while we are reminded of our
neighbour's suffering, but by lunchtime we have forgotten what we learned.
Write about a poem that deals with the subject of work but also has a deeper
meaning. You should refer to use of techniques such as sound, word choice,
structure, imagery or any other relevant way to convey the poets message.
In the poem .. by Carol .. the topic of work,
and especially what a war photographer does as part of his job, is examined. The
poem deals with more than just the subject of work; it also looks at the theme of how
other people treat the work of the photographer and questions us about how we think
about the suffering of others in foreign lands. The poet has a particular interest as she
personally knows the British photographer Don McCullin.
In the last stanza the scene moves away from the darkroom to the plane in which the
photographer travels. The poet begins by using the phrase a hundred .. The
choice of this word in deliberate, not images or pictures. In doing so he makes us
think .. From these hundred the editor picks out five or six. This
makes the editor sound .. . But the photographer is
very aware of the power of his pictures which make the readers eyes
. We know, as he does, that their power is short lived.
The last line of the poem is very powerful and it conveys the writers message
perfectly Now go on to discuss what you see is CADs point clearly she tries to
make us think of how the war phs job is both cruel and kind at the same time. As Tim
Page said,all war photography is anti-war. We see how the photographer reacts to
the images he captures and then how the public react to them. How does he feel about
this public reaction ?She invites the reader to ask the question Does such
photography have a useful role in society or are we somehow making suffering less
painful for us to endure and more easy to ignore ? What do you think ?
Setting is
explained
Technical aspects
are identified
Word choice is
explained