 Hello and welcome to summary of all you need to know about the poem War Photographer by Caroline Duffy. I'll explain the meaning related to this poem as it appears in part 3 of the Pearson-Edexcel International GCSE anthology. Now do bear in mind that, in contrast to part 1 of the anthology which featured only non-fiction texts, and part 2 which is a mix of fiction short stories and poems, part 3 of this anthology exclusively features poems alone. So in this video, I'll highlight key language and literary devices used in the poem, and you'll learn how to analyse it. So let's get started. Now I'll begin by reading through the first two stanzas of this poem before pausing and pointing out literary techniques, and then I'll read through the remainder of the poem and we'll go through the other literary techniques that you should be aware of. So let's begin. In his dark room he's finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows as though this were a church, and he, a priest, preparing to entone a mass. Belfast, Beirut, Nampen, all flesh is grass. He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands which did not tremble then, though seem to now. Rural England, home again to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, to fields which don't explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat. Now of course as you probably have guessed this poem is showing and reflecting the experiences of a war photographer, an individual whose job is to go out to war-torn countries and war-torn cities in order to take pictures and very likely come home and publish these pictures in order to raise awareness in newspapers. Now the title is interesting because of course it focuses on the role and the job of this photographer who's a central character in this poem but it also makes us aware of the hostility of war and it foreshadows what the photographer will see. Also bear in mind that this poem is structured into four stanzas which are in cestets. In other words each stanza has six lines within it. Now the opening line in verse one or stanza one we are focused on him being in his dark room. Now this is a reference to a red room where negatives are developed and this comes down to very traditional photography where pictures are taken and then the negatives are taken from the camera and for the negatives to be effectively developed the photographer has to go to a red room where they develop these pictures. This is the optimum place where these negatives can develop. Moreover we learned that he is finally alone with spools of suffering. Now the metaphor and sibilance here highlights all the trauma and suffering he's seen and also if we go back to the idea of the photographer developing the pictures they usually take out the negatives from the camera and then as they're developing the picture they have to take out a tray full of water these spools and then the images which are on the piece of paper start forming. So of course this is also a metaphor for that. Now in line three the only light is red. Now this colour red has a double meaning as it's mentioned in this poem because it is alluding to the blood that's been shed at war but it also alludes the red light in the dark photography room so this is the red light which I've mentioned where a photographer develops their pictures and the negatives. Furthermore in line four the light is red and it softly glows as though this were a church. Now the simile hair likens the process that the photographer is engaging in in developing these pictures to a priest preparing for mass. This is a sacred process for the photographer they're really really careful they're paying so much attention as they're developing these images of these people who are horribly suffering at war. Moreover this is further emphasised with the reference to mass. Now mass is a religious Catholic ceremony and what this shows is that this process is extremely sacred to the photographer. Now there's a list of three different cities Belfast, Beirut and Nongpen and tricolon is used here by Caroline Duffy to refer to war-torn cities. Do you remember that Belfast is in Northern Ireland Beirut is the capital of Lebanon and Nongpen is in Vietnam. All three cities have seen extreme amounts of war so of course this is a few of the cities that the photographer has gone in to take pictures of to raise awareness. Moreover the reference to all flesh is grass. Now this is a biblical reference again it ties into the idea of mass and what this reference is is a reference to death and the afterlife and as the photographer perhaps is developing these images of people who are suffering it all depresses him as he's thinking of death and the afterlife. Now in the following stanza we learn he has a job to do. Now the Caesura hair after due highlights how he knows his should be dispassionate however he's finding it really hard to separate himself from the images that he's seeing. Now solutions slop in trays now the sibilance here again is emphasising the trays which are holding the pictures that are developing in this dark room and he can hear this movement of these pictures this solutions as it's the moving. Moreover on Jean-Pierre Montt is used continuously in this poem as you can see in the second verse and what this does is it speeds up the pace of the poem. Now we are focused on his hands and what this alliteration does is it focuses attention on his movement and it shows his trauma which we learn his hands are trembling meaning he's really traumatic even if he's trying to disassociate himself and be dispassionate he still can't help but tremble at the thought of the trauma that he's seen at war. Now in line nine we know that he's from England because he's back in rural England now this minor sentence shows his privilege the photographer's privilege and his sense of guilt at being able to escape the war-torn cities whilst he's going there taking pictures of these people who are suffering he can't leave he then leaves and comes back to a really peaceful rural England not even the busy capital city London but rural England which is a complete and stark contrast to the places of war that he's been to. Now he then comes back to what he sees as ordinary pain now the pre-modifier ordinary emphasises just the peacefulness of England especially the peacefulness of rural England which cannot even compare to the horror of war. Furthermore he's back to fields which don't explode beneath the feet now what this does and especially the onomatopoeia explode it refers to the landmines in war-torn countries which kill innocent people landmines are just basically hidden bombs that are put underground and when somebody walks on these hidden bombs they detonate and usually they kill or they maim and severely disable people and of course in these war-torn countries there's a lot of innocent civilians innocent young children who run on these grounds not realising that there's a bomb hidden underneath and then they become maimed to get killed and so this is really really tragic and horrific. Furthermore this is further emphasised with the reference to the running children in the nightmare heat now the running children this present continuous verb running this emphasises just the innocence but this innocence is stolen because they're trying to have fun the running around and then they get killed or they become maimed so they become disabled because of running on these landmines. Moreover the reference to the nightmare heat this shows the photographer's experience of how war in a hot country can feel really hellish so let's continue something is happening a stranger's features faintly start to twist before his eyes a half formed ghost he remembers the cries of this man's wife how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust a hundred agonies in black and white from which his editor will pick out five or six for sunday's supplement the reader's eyeballs prick with tears between bath and pre-launch beers from the airplane he stares impassively at where he earns a living and they do not care. Now these final two verses in the poem essentially show that images have become developed he's created and taken pictures of hundreds and hundreds of images however contrary to what he wants to do which is have them published in a newspaper and raise awareness we learn that he becomes very disillusioned because we realise that this is a job for him but equally he feels like he's not really having much of an impact through his work the editor will maybe pick out a few of the pictures the worst maybe and then readers who are desensitised to these horrible images of war around the world they'll maybe read it feel a little bit sad but then move on they go and have a beer in england and so the photographer is perhaps quite disgusted at the passivity of people in england and in the developed world towards people suffering in countries which are war-torn. Now in verse three there's a turning point something is happening now the Volta here is emphasised by the simple sentence and it's quite mysterious and we're on edge we're wondering okay something's happening what is happening and this Volta is further emphasised through this Azura. Now this mystery is revealed as strange as features faintly start to twist before his eyes and the litteration of features and faintly captures a slow formation of the photography the photographic image of this person that the photographer has taken a picture of he really some this particular image really captures his attention as he's developing it now in line 15 there's the reference to this image in particular it looks like a half formed ghost now there's a double meaning here because the negatives of the picture if you hold a negative up to light it seems almost ghostly because it's just a negative of the picture however also the image in the other side of this meaning is that the man is half dead so he's taken a picture of a man that's dying so this is a really really loaded term and a loaded reference then the photographer recalls so now this is the trauma still haunting him he recalls the cries of the man's wife and the onomatopoeia here is really powerful because it shows the man's cries so this man who took a picture of who was dying his wife was next to him crying her piercing cries still haunt this photographer and we learn how he sought approval now the literation emphasizes his guilt he's going to a man who's dying perhaps is he's dying in his wife's arms and as his wife is crying and shrieking from grief he takes a picture so this is showing that he feels so guilty at doing this rather than perhaps even helping them he's just taking a picture and then here there's afterwards is the enjambement how he sought approval and again as i mentioned enjambement speeds up the pace of the poem and he sought approval without words to do what someone must now the eliteration again without words shows his mute all he can do is walk up to this woman who's crying grief from losing her husband and just take picture and perhaps he has a look or feeling sorry in his eyes but really he's he can't do much else and he feels really guilty and not doing more then he mentions do what someone must and there's a rhyming couplet dust the following term in the following line now what this shows again is that this creates a sense of predictability this is a pattern that the photographer does each country he goes to he has to take a picture he has to maybe creep up to people who are crying mourning and take a picture of the dead relative and he's in some ways quite disgusted with his behavior and his actions but he doesn't feel like he has much choice and of course this lack of choice is emphasized through the term in the modal verb must then there's a reference to the blood stained into foreign dust now the reference to foreign dust hints that people's lives outside of the west are just simply less valuable and this is of course further emphasized later on when we learned that these pictures are published in a newspaper people will read them and then just throw away the newspaper and carry on with their lives as regular and so what this is showing is the photographer is slowly coming to the realization that actually people don't really care about these war-torn countries as long as it's not affecting them in the west they don't seem to care too much about changing things in these war-torn countries now in the final stanza he looks at the different images he's developed a hundred agonies and this hyperbole illustrates the vast amount of pictures he's taken but of course the vast amount of suffering that the photographer has seen on his global travels to these war-torn countries now he's looking at these images in black and white and this oxymoron references to the black and white newspaper print of course it's going to be printed in a newspaper now the the reference to his editor shows the reason why he goes on these travels he has to take them for his job as a journalist as a photography journalist now what this is showing is that there's a sense of guilt that the pictures are just almost for a spectacle in a newspaper a spectacle of poverty a spectacle of war before people who look at these horrific images just throw them and the whole newspaper will wait in the bin now the editor will pick out five or six for sunday's supplement and the sibilancist sunday's supplement shows how everything that he sees all the images hundreds and hundreds of pictures he takes with all the individual stories they will all be whittled down to just a few images for a newspaper so maybe the photographer here feels like these people being really too humanized people don't quite care they're only seeing this almost for a spectacle now he imagines how the reader's eyeballs prick with tears so he imagines maybe the person who picks up sunday's supplement might feel just a little bit sad as they look at some of these images the few that are chosen however the photographer feels like these emotions are probably going to be very inauthentic because soon after they're going to go out they're going to have a bath and then go out for some pre-lunch beers so really they're not that massively impacted they read this story of a war-torn country they see some horrible images but then they are still okay to just go out for some beers and forget about everything so what this is showing perhaps is the photographer's disgust at how people in england don't care enough about global suffering they'll maybe read about it feel a little bit guilty their emotions are a little bit inauthentic but then they just carry on with their lives afterwards then the photographer is back going back to another job in another country from the aeroplane he says impassively now the reference to the aeroplane shows he's traveling to yet another war-torn country but he seems to be very disillusioned with this process and he's staring impassively now the adverb impassively shows he feels really disillusioned he feels powerless to influence things and he also feels really defeated especially when it comes to him submitting these pictures it doesn't feel like perhaps he's moving the needle pushing anything in terms of showing the extreme suffering that he's seeing around the world now the reference to the third person pronoun they refers to people in the west they just simply don't seem to care and this is perhaps an epiphany that the photographer has and he's quite disgusted at it so that's all if you found this video useful do note that we have an in-depth extensive course covering all the texts and poems in parts one two and three of the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE anthology so make sure you sign up for this course for explanations on all the texts as well as model answers also check out our website www.firstrecheaters.com where you can find plenty of English revision worksheets model answers and online courses covering all the major English syllabuses including Edexcel, AQA and IGCSE thank you so much for watching