GCSE power and conflict poetry comparisons including:
- War photographer & remains
- Bayonet charge & exposure
- Kamikaze & the emigree
- The emigree & Checking out me history
- Poppies & Remains
, War photographer/ Remains
Lasting Effects of War
Realities of War
Both speakers illustrate the lasting effect of war to highlight the detrimental consequences of
Both Duffy and Armitage highlight the extreme realities of war to expose the truth of the war.
suffering that is perpetual
● “Blood stained into foreign dust”
● “Fields which don't explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heart” ➔ ANALYSIS: Quotes reveal that the trauma will continue to haunt the speaker.
● “His blood shadow stays on the street”
→ ANALYSIS - juxtaposition of innocence and unimaginable horrors, “running”: connotes ➔ ANALYSIS: Both use the symbol of blood to reveal the agony and anguish that is
playfulness but here the children are trying to escape/ run AWAY - emphasis his isolation caused by conflict.
➔ Speaker in war photographer is conflicted that he cannot intervene/ stop the conflict
from occurring.// Speaker in remains is emotional damage from abusing his power of
● “Three of a kind all letting fly, and I swear/ I see every round as it rips through his life” killing an innocence which was ‘probably armed, possibly not
→ ANALYSIS - “rips through his life” = graphical metaphor, colloquial language suggest ”a strangers feature faintly start to twist before his start to twist before his eyes a half informed
he’s trying to order his thoughts ghost
→ STRUCTURE: both quotes use enjambment suggesting the speakers can’t order their STRUCTURE: in War Photographer the speaker uses a rigid structure and formatt (4 stanzas with 6 inches =
standard size of photo 4 x 6 ) tries bring a sense of order to process to order the chaos of war. In Remains the
feelings / thoughts irregular rhyme scheme and rhythm + lots of enjambment suggests that the trauma is inescapable + endless
pain.
Perspectives
While both poems have an individual experience during conflict.In Remains the speaker has taken full ownership at the cost of trauma, whereas in war photographer the speaker has a
more harsh and bitter tone, criticising people away from war who are ignorant of the catastrophic impacts of war
● ‘ The readers eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers”
→ ANALYSIS - plosives = aggressive(said with contempt?)/ critiquing the reader (us !), “eyeballs”: clinical + superficial no deep emotion (desensitised). trivialised rhyme + alliteration/
images of comfort juxtapose the horrors he’s seen.
● “His bloody life in my bloody hands”
→ ANALYSIS - Plosives: perhaps is showcasing the speakers frustration/ aggression ///repetition of ‘bloody’ reveals the desperation of the speaker to be rid the guilt of someone who was
‘probably armed, possibly not’.
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