Summary
The first stanza introduces the photographer, using only the pronoun “he.” The photographer is alone in his “dark room.” A darkroom is a completely dark room that is used by photographers to process “negatives”—undeveloped images registered on film—into full black-and-white pictures. They have been used since the inception of photography in the early nineteenth century. (Since the time of this poem's publication, film photography has been mostly replaced by digital photography, which does not require such a process.) The darkroom is glowing red, which in addition to having metaphorical significance, is typically how darkrooms function. While the room is completely dark, a photographer can safely illuminate their work area without damaging the photographs by using a red or amber light, because black and white papers are typically only sensitive to blue or green light. Duffy compares the glowing light of the darkroom to the light in a church, and compares the photographer to a priest giving Mass. He mentally recites the names of three war sites—“Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.”—as well as a Bible verse that appears in both the Old Testament (Book of Isaiah) and the New Testament (Peter) – “All flesh is grass.”
Analysis
Duffy immediately establishes contrasts in the first stanza to invoke questions about the ethics of war photography. She describes the photographer’s trays of developing images as “spools of suffering.” As used here, the primary meaning of ‘spool’ is “a round object onto which thread, tape, or film can be wound, especially before it is put into a machine.” While the photographer is working with literal spools, he is also metaphorically “unwinding” the memories of suffering that he witnessed. This unwinding imagery contrasts with the “ordered rows” of fluid used to develop the photographs. The photographer is trying to contain his sprawling, traumatic memories within organized rows, but is unable to do so. This imagery reflects the dichotomy between the chaos and panic of the war scene with the calm order of the photography room. The ordered rows also invoke pews in a church or a graveyard. This juxtaposition between the violent action of the war scene and the calm silence of the darkroom is further emphasized by the use of the word “finally”: the photographer is “finally” developing his pictures after his travels through conflict zones.
The stanza also creates a sense of shifting time and place that is characteristic of trauma. In the first line the photographer is “finally alone,” but in the next he is accompanied with his “spools of suffering,” demonstrating that he is not actually alone – he is accompanied by the presence of his memory. Another contrast is established between the “dark room” and the soft glow of red light, further contributing to the sense of unease as the photographer is surrounded by the color of blood. The priest imagery is also a means of the photographer himself making sense of his work and using metaphor to shield himself from reality, which adds a further layer of meaning. Characteristic of those grappling with trauma, the photographer is unable to anchor himself in the present moment and place—he is transported between the darkroom, the war zone, and the metaphorical church.
Building on this sense of trauma intruding on the photographer’s work and disrupting his sense of time and place, the final line of the first stanza invokes a flashback in which the photographer remembers the different war zones he has visited. “Belfast” references the capital of Northern Ireland, which was severely affected by the Troubles, a long-running, violent conflict that stretched from 1968 and 1998. The Troubles, although complex, can be described as a conflict between nationalist Roman Catholics and unionist Protestants. This conflict would likely be very familiar to Duffy’s British audience at the time the poem was written. Similarly, the reference to Beirut implies the photographer’s presence in the capital city of Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, which began in 1975. Finally, the reference to Phnom Penh invokes the Cambodian-Vietnamese war, and in particular the attack on the capital city of Phnom Phen in April 1975. Each of these cities is stated in a single sentence, strung together in a single line—“Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.”—creating a succession that emphasizes the many war zones the photographer has witnessed, and establishing how the repeated conflicts have traumatized him.
The stanza then concludes by returning to imagery drawn from Christian liturgy, directly quoting from the Bible—“All flesh is grass.” This quotation appears in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, the line appears in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 40, verses 6 through 8. The verses compare flesh to grass because human lives are fragile, like blades of grass. The verse continues that “[t]he grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the Lord blows on them,” reflecting how human life can be easily taken away. This quotation is relevant to war because war treats human lives as expendable, and survival is contingent on many factors which are often random, from battle arrangements to pure luck or “divine intervention,” as the quotation suggests. The phrase reappears in a similar context in the New Testament, Peter chapter 1, verses 24 through 25: “All flesh is as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” This quotation conveys a similar meaning; the reference to “wither[ing]” and “fall[ing] away” is particularly applicable to war, as it invokes imagery of destruction that is omnipresent in war. Duffy leaves ambiguous whether the quotation is inserted by the author or is given from the perspective photographer’s own thoughts, as he bitterly applies the quote to his own observations of war. The quote may also be an allusion to other works beyond the Bible. It has appeared in many other literary pieces, notably in a poem by another English poet, Christina Rossetti, who was part of the Romantic literary movement in the nineteenth century.
