War Photographer Essay Questions

Describe how Duffy uses literary elements (for example, symbols, metaphors, irony, and setting) to connect the four stanzas. What similarities and contrasts are there across the stanzas in terms of literary elements?

We can point to many connections across the stanzas. The themes of suffering, memory, trauma, and religion are developed throughout the poem. For example, the first stanza describes "spools of suffering"; the second describes "ordinary pain"; the third stanza describes the "cries / of this man's wife"; and the fourth stanza references "agonies." By using many synonyms for pain (suffering, pain, agonies), Duffy conveys the same theme of suffering across different stanzas. There are also concrete symbols and objects that are connected across different stanzas. The chemical baths implied in the second stanza ("[s]olutions slop in trays") are described in the fourth stanza as finished photographs—"[a] hundred agonies in black and white." The reference to "grass" in the Bible verse "[a]ll flesh is grass" in the first stanza is reinforced in the third stanza, where the metaphorical grass is turned into blood-stained "dust."

We can also identify many contrasts. Each stanza represents a discrete step in the photographic development process: stanza one describes organizing the rows of trays; stanza two describes submerging the photographs in the trays to develop them; stanza three depicts the photographs beginning to develop; stanza four portrays the completed photographs. There is also a difference in tone across the stanzas. The first stanza is reflective and somber, describing the empty dark room, the "softly glow[ing] light," and the photographer "preparing" to work. The tension builds throughout the poem, with stanzas two and three using visceral imagery to depict the photographer struggling with his traumatic memories. The fourth stanza reduces this tension and returns to the introspective mood of the first, describing the photographer as cynically reflecting on the impassivity of his readers.

How does Duffy use sibilance in this poem?

Sibilance is the repetition of letter sounds that have a hushing or hissing quality. In the second line of the poem, Duffy utilizes sibilance by describing the "spools of suffering," the photographer is working with. This use of sibilance draws the reader to this line, emphasizing the pain and suffering that is contained within the spools. The words "spools" and "suffering" sound similar due to this use of sibilance, which rhetorically connects them together—the spools are closely attached to suffering because they physically contain depictions of the photographer's traumatic memories.

What does Duffy suggest about the documentation of warfare?

We are reminded throughout the poem that the photographer's job is to document the experiences of war. As such, this might bring up questions about people and organizations who profit from the documentation of warfare, and ask whether this is ethical or not. For example, the apathy with which the editor "will pick out five or six for Sunday's supplement" raises questions about the ethics of observing war but failing to intervene. At the same time, Duffy suggests that the photographer is "do[ing] what someone must" by depicting the violence. War photography can call people to action or serve to preserve memories of horrific warfare in order to help prevent it in the future.