"War Photographer" is a poem by Scottish writer Carol Ann Duffy, the United Kingdom's poet laureate from 2009 to 2019. Originally published in 1985, "War Photographer" depicts the experiences of a photographer who returns home to England to develop the hundreds of photos he has taken in an unspecified war zone. The photographer wrestles with the trauma of what he has seen and his bitterness that the people who view his images are unable to empathize fully with the victims of catastrophic violence abroad. The poem references a number of major historical air strikes and clearly draws imagery from Nick Ut's famous Vietnam War photograph of children fleeing the devastation of a napalm bomb.
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The Full Text of “War Photographer”
The Full Text of “War Photographer”
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“War Photographer” Summary
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“War Photographer” Themes
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Apathy, Empathy, and the Horrors of War
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Line 1
- Line 2
- Line 6
- Lines 7-9
- Lines 9-12
- Lines 13-15
- Lines 15-18
- Lines 19-24
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Trauma and Memory
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 3-6
- Line 7
- Lines 7-9
- Lines 9-10
- Lines 11-12
- Lines 13-18
- Line 19
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The Ethics of Documenting War
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-6
- Line 7
- Lines 7-9
- Lines 11-12
- Lines 13-15
- Lines 15-18
- Lines 19-24
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “War Photographer”
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Lines 1-2
In his dark ...
... in ordered rows. -
Lines 3-5
The only light ...
... intone a Mass. -
Line 6
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom ... flesh is grass.
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Lines 7-9
He has a ...
... seem to now. -
Lines 9-10
Rural England. Home ...
... weather can dispel, -
Lines 11-12
to fields which ...
... a nightmare heat. -
Lines 13-15
Something is happening. ...
... a half-formed ghost. -
Lines 15-18
He remembers the ...
... into foreign dust. -
Lines 19-21
A hundred agonies ...
... for Sunday’s supplement. -
Lines 21-22
The reader’s eyeballs ...
... and pre-lunch beers. -
Lines 23-24
From the aeroplane ...
... do not care.
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“War Photographer” Symbols
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Photographs
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 2: “with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”
- Line 7: “Solutions slop in trays”
- Lines 13-15: “A stranger’s features / faintly start to twist before his eyes, / a half-formed ghost”
- Line 19: “A hundred agonies in black and white”
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“War Photographer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “s,” “s,” “s”
- Line 4: “th,” “th”
- Line 5: “pr,” “pr”
- Line 6: “B,” “B,” “P,” “P”
- Line 7: “H,” “h,” “S,” “s”
- Line 8: “h,” “h,” “th”
- Line 9: “th”
- Line 13: “S,” “s,” “t,” “f”
- Line 14: “f,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “t”
- Line 16: “h,” “h”
- Line 17: “w,” “w,” “w”
- Line 20: “s”
- Line 21: “S,” “s”
- Line 22: “b,” “b,” “b”
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Line 6: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.”
- Lines 11-12: “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet / of running children in a nightmare heat.”
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Aphorism
Where aphorism appears in the poem:- Line 6: “All flesh is grass.”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “I,” “i”
- Line 2: “o”
- Line 3: “o,” “o”
- Line 4: “ou,” “e,” “u,” “e”
- Line 5: “ie,” “a”
- Line 6: “e,” “a,” “e,” “e,” “a”
- Line 8: “i,” “i,” “i,” “e,” “e”
- Line 10: “i,” “i,” “ea,” “e”
- Line 11: “ie,” “o,” “o,” “ea,” “ee”
- Line 13: “i,” “i,” “i,” “a,” “e,” “u”
- Line 14: “ai”
- Line 15: “ie”
- Line 16: “i”
- Line 17: “o,” “o,” “a,” “o,” “o,” “u”
- Line 18: “oo,” “u”
- Line 19: “a,” “a,” “a”
- Line 20: “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “i,” “i”
- Line 21: “u,” “u,” “i”
- Line 22: “i,” “ea,” “ee,” “e,” “ee”
- Line 23: “a,” “a,” “a,” “e”
- Line 24: “i,” “i”
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Caesura
Where caesura appears in the poem:- Line 6: “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All”
- Line 7: “do. Solutions”
- Line 8: “hands, which”
- Line 9: “now. Rural England. Home”
- Line 13: “happening. A”
- Line 15: “ghost. He”
- Line 16: “wife, how”
- Line 21: “supplement. The”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “r,” “r,” “n,” “ll,” “l,” “n”
- Line 2: “s,” “l,” “s,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “r,” “d,” “r,” “d,” “r”
- Line 3: “l,” “l,” “l,” “l”
- Line 5: “pr,” “pr,” “p,” “r,” “t,” “t,” “ss”
- Line 6: “B,” “s,” “t,” “B,” “t,” “P,” “n,” “P,” “n,” “ll,” “l”
- Line 7: “H,” “h,” “S,” “l,” “sl”
- Line 8: “h,” “s,” “h,” “s,” “t,” “t,” “th”
- Line 9: “th,” “R,” “r,” “g,” “g,” “n”
- Line 10: “n,” “p,” “n,” “w,” “p,” “l,” “w,” “d,” “p,” “l”
- Line 11: “l,” “d,” “d,” “pl,” “d,” “th,” “th”
- Line 12: “n,” “n”
- Line 13: “S,” “str,” “r,” “s,” “t,” “r,” “s”
- Line 14: “f,” “t,” “st,” “t,” “t,” “t,” “st”
- Line 15: “f,” “f”
- Line 16: “w,” “h,” “w,” “h”
- Line 17: “w,” “w,” “d,” “d,” “w,” “eo”
- Line 18: “d,” “st,” “d,” “d,” “st”
- Line 21: “S,” “s,” “s,” “s,” “r”
- Line 22: “t,” “rs,” “b,” “tw,” “th,” “b,” “th,” “r,” “b,” “rs”
- Line 23: “s,” “r,” “ss,” “r”
- Line 24: “r,” “s,” “s”
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 2: “rows.”
- Line 3: “glows,”
- Line 5: “Mass.”
- Line 6: “grass.”
- Line 10: “dispel,”
- Line 12: “heat.”
- Line 14: “eyes,”
- Line 18: “dust.”
- Line 22: “beers.”
- Line 24: “care.”
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Enjambment
Where enjambment appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “alone / with”
- Lines 4-5: “he / a”
- Lines 7-8: “trays / beneath”
- Lines 8-9: “then / though”
- Lines 9-10: “again / to”
- Lines 11-12: “feet / of”
- Lines 13-14: “features / faintly”
- Lines 15-16: “cries / of”
- Lines 16-17: “approval / without”
- Lines 17-18: “must / and”
- Lines 19-20: “white / from”
- Lines 20-21: “six / for”
- Lines 21-22: “prick / with”
- Lines 23-24: “where / he”
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 2: “spools of suffering”
- Line 6: “All flesh is grass”
- Line 19: “A hundred agonies in black and white”
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Parallelism
Where parallelism appears in the poem:- Lines 10-11: “to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, / to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet”
- Lines 16-18: “how he sought approval / without words to do what someone must / and how the blood stained into foreign dust.”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Lines 4-5: “as though this were a church and he / a priest preparing to intone a Mass.”
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“War Photographer” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Dark room
- Spools
- Mass
- Belfast
- Beirut
- Phnom Penh
- "All flesh is grass"
- Solutions
- Dispel
- Sunday's supplement
- Impassively
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “dark room”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “War Photographer”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“War Photographer” Speaker
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“War Photographer” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “War Photographer”
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More “War Photographer” Resources
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External Resources
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"War Photographer" Read Aloud — Listen to the poem read aloud.
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Trailer for the Documentary "War Photographer" — Watch the trailer for the 2011 documentary War Photographer, which explores the responsibilities of photographers in war zones, focusing on photographer James Nachtwey.
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"The Terror of War" — Explore Nick Ut's image from the Vietnam War, "The Terror of War." This famous photograph may have inspired "War Photographer." Note the second photographer at the right of the image examining his camera as children run by him, burnt and naked.
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Carol Ann Duffy Biography — Learn more about Carol Ann Duffy, Britain's first female Poet Laureate, on Poets.org.
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Interview with War Photographer Nick Ut — Watch this NBC interview with Vietnam War photographer Nick Ut about taking his famous photo depicting the naked "Napalm Girl" and the responsibility of photographers in war zones. Ut's comments intersect potently with the themes explored in "War Photographer."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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