The War Refugee Poem

How do the poems in the anthology explore the relationship of grief and memory?

Grief of some kind or another is an inevitable fate we all meet some point in our lives but how grief affects us varies from person to person. In ‘War Photographer’, Carol Ann duffy explores the suppressed memories of a photographer’s past due to the traumatic nature memory of war. Piano examines the haunting and destructive capabilities of memory when the speaker remembers his childhood with his mother which causes grief in the present. However, Mother In a refugee camp opts for a different approach, Exploring how memory can be used to cope with an impending death of a loved one. All the poets agree the painful circumstance of grief , but differ …show more content…
From the outset of the poem we are faced with the impending death of her son through the quote “ she soon would have to forget”. The soft sibilance is used to create melancholy atmosphere which emphasises the tragic nature of the impending death. The ellipses after this quote details her refusal she has within herself to forget the memory of her son. This is further solidified with the use of symbolism of decay and word choice. When the writer is giving a description of the child with “Rust coloured hair left on his skull” , the word “skull” jumps out especially when describing a young child. This is significant due to the connotation with death with the word skull . As reader we cannot stop ourselves but feel pity for the mother and an overwhelming sense of grief due to the injustices the small child faces. Achebe’s use of intense language and word choice is evident to describe and convey the horrific and harsh conditions within the camp to the reader. With the camp being described as smelling of “odors of diarrhea of unwashed children” to disgust the reader while also creating pity for the mother and son as they …show more content…
The photographer when developing his image sees an “half formed ghost”, the speaker uses a double entendre to conveys the conflict the photographer undergoes when remembering his past like the forming ghost and also he is able to decompress and release his emotions which otherwise was not possible. “He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands which did not tremble then though seem to now.” Caesura is used to place emphasis on the line “He has a job to do.” to reinforce the importance of the photographer while also conveying to the reader how seriously the photographer takes his job. More importantly the photographer's calmness when taking pictures with his attitude as he develops them. If his hands shake when he takes pictures, they won't be any good, but in the darkroom he can allow his hands to tremble. The darkroom allows him to release his repressed