Poem Analysis: War Photographer

The poem ‘War Photographer’ addresses the tragedies that take place at war and the issues in the way the western world perceive the photos that raise awareness to these horrible situations. The strong feelings of frustration, love of his job and suffering are portrayed throughout the poem. The photographer is ‘finally’ alone implying that he is welcoming his solitary connotes that his company was not welcoming. This is most likely due to the fact that the majority of them would be soldiers and depressed people stuck in the middle of a war torn country. The protagonist in this poem is in a dark room where the only light available is ‘red’. This has strong connotations to the love he possess for his job as well as the contrast, which is the fear …show more content…
The poem ‘Marrysong’ is technically an extended metaphor comparing a woman to geography. The first line links the woman to the subject geography as if taught in school. The adjective ‘learned’ implies that the man is trying to study the woman and understand her. Almost like he has an academic interest and has a strong interest and curiosity to learn about this alien woman. The woman did not have regularity ‘without seasons’. This suggests that she was unpredictable and could not be judged, and could possibly have an illness or disorder rendering it hard to assume what mood she may be in. The adjective ‘lost’ could link the metaphor to geography, assuming the woman is the map this creates a paradox as he is with her. However, he does not know where he is in terms of his relationship with her. This could be because of her mood swings; there is a sudden change from line five, where he uses the metaphor she laughs like ‘cool water’ to line six where her voice precipitously turns to ‘stones’. This reinforces her unexpected changes and could be a leading force as to why the man would be interested and curious to find out about her. The man clearly attempts to make conversation with the woman. However, she abruptly stops him. This is shown with four consecutive short sentences stopped with caesuras. The woman’s mood changes once again as she feels sadness ‘wind brought… tasting of sea’. This synesthetic imagery acts as the woman’s tears and her crying ‘tasting of sea’. However this ‘suddenly’ changes to a different mood. This suggests that she will change suddenly and quickly. The man is clearly in love with this woman as he is staying with her despite her possible illness and difficult nature, he wants to understand her and learn to feed his curiosity. This poem allows me to understand the passion and determination one may have for love. Also the perseverance and strength to stray away from a loveless