War Photographer Poem

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Today I’m going to focus mainly on two poems, War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy and Dulce et decorum est by Wilfred Owen respectively. Both of them are war poems but are written from different perspectives. War Photographer is from the point of view of a war photographer and Dulce et decorum est is written from the view of a soldier. We can observe the contrast between different roles performed by different people in war.

The soldiers are the one doing all the fighting in the frontline, which seems that it will never end, and is highlighted by the phrase “and towards our distant rest began to trudge.

“Distant rest” can symbolize death, as the soldiers can only rest and achieve peace through death, having a meaning that the soldiers have to fight on until the moment they die. As for the tasks of the photographer, he has to snap shots on the battlefield, capturing the sufferings of both the soldiers and the public.

Though the speaker did not directly portray the war photographer filming the sufferers in war but she did hinted so by the line “with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. ” Referring to the films which show real faces of war victims.

And also this line “solutions slop in trays between his hands which did not tremble then” indicating that the war photographer has frequently experienced war that he is so familiar and professional with his job. Then the war photographer would leave for a safer place, like rural England, carrying the image of their suffering while the sufferers lingered behind on the edge of death.

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This is shown by the image of safety in the aeroplane looking down on the conflict and bloodshed. Eventually, the war photographer had to organize the photo whish his editor will pick five or six for Sunday’s supplement.

The War Photographer Poem

War causes serious consequence not only on those who experienced or witnessed war but also their families and friends. The cries of a man’s wife indicates the intensity of suffering both emotional and physical embraced by people involved in the war. It also (indicates) that suffering is not only inflicted on the individual but his family as well. With “eyes” rhyming with “cries”, it heightens our sympathy towards the victims in war as it appeals to both the readers’ sense of hearing and seeing. From “Dulce et Decorum est”, no doubt the soldiers suffer from war.

They are painted by simile as old beggers, hangs or a man in fire or lime. It creates an images of men trapped in war like animals in a cage struggling to be released and some are guttering, choking, drowning. The repetition of the application of ing here, conveys the continuos movement of struggling and reveals the long period of sufferings. These descriptions are ironic because to the public, war is something to be proud of, it is something worth dying for and brings great dignity.

But the reality is war is not what it seems to the public, propaganda has made something so horrific into something dignified In all my dreams before my helpless sight,” conveys the suffering went through by the sacrificed soldiers have long-term effect on those who survive. The images of suffering and the horrific experience witnessed in war appears frequently in their dreams and it’s just uncontrollable and inevitable. The run-on-lines in this poem also shows that suffering is continous and non-stop. All these vivid aspects of exhausted soldiers and the true horrendous aspects of war have the intention to unmask the reality of war and let us feel the sense of disgust and frustration felt by all the soldiers.

As we flipped through the newspaper, does anyone one of you totally trust what the newspaper reports? No one, right? Congratulation, u are all witty people. Just take a look at this apple daily newspaper. Obviously, the primary objectives of the publisher are not to provide accurate articles, its aim is definitely to attract more readers and maximize profit. If you guys read Chinese newspaper, which I assume most of you don’t, you should know that Apple Daily is known for its super large and usually a bit exaggerated title when compared with other newspaper, like South China Morning Post.

Its strategy is to make the title more shocking or fascinating, which usually convert some of the real detail of the news. In War Photographer, “a hundred agonies in black and white”, a hundred agonies show real emotion and unsimplicity but black and white is simplistic and the censored version and is what the readers see. Just like the Apple Daily newspaper, the pictures will be reduced to one illustration in the Sunday papers, removing the real agony of the photograph’s subject.