War Photograph by Kate Daniels and War Photographer Essay Example

on with his job. At least he is making the world well informed and aware of the tragedies across the world.

The shocking image of a helpless child is conveyed in the first stanza of "War Photograph" where, "a naked child is running... her arms stretched out/her mouth open". "A naked child", this suggests vulnerability and innocence and presents shocking and graphic images evoking pity and sympathy within us. This simple description is followed closely by an account of her movements, "... running along the path towards us, her arms stretched out... " The fact that her she is "running" and "her arms are stretched out" suggests her complete exposure to any harm from gunfire and bombs.

It also conjures up an image of longing and need for affection that she does not receive. When we are told her mouth is open, "Her mouth open", a silent scream of fear, shock and terror is implied. Thinking about this the reader feel sad that there is nothing that they can do to help and comfort the child. In "War Photographer" the vision of children is always conveyed in the lines "... fields which don't explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat. " The image of children is hidden within the shocking description of how dangerous the surroundings are there in contrast to where he is now, "fields which don't explode".

The idea of "running children" is a reminder of the innocence of the youngsters and the reader sympathises with this image. The description of the heat as a "nightmare" connotates the idea of how awful and almost unbearable the heat truly is. This description is

very effective but I believe the single image in "War Photograph" of a child running is much more powerful as it provides a rather graphic description of the young child. This is unlike "War Photographer" in which the writer only briefly mentions the children and concentrates on the environment that surrounds the youngsters.

The response to the running child in "War Photograph" is of fear, disbelief, guilt and above all horror, "She is running- my God- to us". The phrase, "my God", separated from the rest of the line using dashes, is an afterthought expressed by the writer and conveys all these emotions. There is a repetition of the word "running" throughout this poem, this gives us the sense of it all happening now in present tense. It also imposes a sense of urgency and speed that is continued all the way through the poem.

The writer refers to the detail that the child is running "to us"; this causes the reader to feel responsible and classifies everyone who is looking at the picture of the child in the same group that contains people that are able to aid the young child in some way but are contained with their own lives and detached from all the anarchy and pain exposed in the pictures. It therefore greatly imposes guilt on the reader and changes our whole conception of what point the writer is trying to convey throughout the poem. She is trying to show us we are lacking humanity.

A sense of responsibility is also implied through the line, "running from the Gods/who have changed the sky to fire". The wealthy individuals in the world are perceived as

the "Gods" in this stanza. God is understood to be calm and supportive in actuality but in this stanza the idea of the Gods as individuals in first world countries that are wealthy is in fact ironic because it is those with great prosperity that are so destructive and aggravate wars in other countries. This is an opposite image of what they believe to be true- they are not running to us but from us.

The idea of the sky being turned to fire, "changed the sky to fire", creates a clear image of how intense the colour of the sky was changed to. The sky is usually blue and it is unusual for it to be such a fiery orange and red colour. This forms a link between blood and fire and is also strongly associated with the concept of danger. The writer is disgusted that human beings can be so selfish and inhumane towards others not as well off this is somewhat conveyed in these lines. These thoughts have a great impact on the reader as it encourages the reader to think about the lack of humanity in the world today.

The quote, "All flesh is grass", is a religious metaphor taken from the bible, explaining that the natural way of life comes back eventually. Throughout stanza one religious imagery is used, "Priest", "Church", "Mass". Many people take comfort in religion and by using it before describing the pictures of war and pain it reminds the reader of how hard it must be for people living in circumstances that involve war to remain or become religious. In "War Photographer" someone's reaction to a number of

the pictures that the photographer has developed is described, "The reader's eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers".

There is a lack of real emotion expressed at this time. The writer describes how the "reader's eyeballs prick" this is a good choice of words seeing that when you are shocked your eyes generally widen exposing a larger area of the eyeballs. Internal rhyming is another technique carefully used to draw the reader's attention to this line, 'tears', and 'beers'. "The bath and pre-lunch beers", demonstrates how easily the reader will be able to continue with his normal life after observing the pictures.

Just as if the minute in time that the reader looked at the pictures that made his "eyeballs prick" was only a passing moment that is very unimportant in his life and forgotten easily. In reality this is a frequent occurrence is people's lives. The fact that we cannot do anything to help the situation means that we do not let the situation rest on our minds. The poet explains to us in "War Photographer" how the photographer needs to control his emotion to continue professionally with his job, "He has a job to do/do what someone must".

These lines are a representation of reality kicking in - he still has a job to do and must concentrate and not allow himself to become emotional about the pictures to do carry on with his work properly. In the line "he has a job to do" it is the poet that realises the photographer needs to get on with his job after reflecting on the pictures. The second line, "do what someone must", is

also a link back to reality but this time it is the photographer that is prompting himself to concentrate on the job he is carrying out.

This does add to the impact of the poem as it demonstrates the influence the photographs have on the photographer and the difficulty he has trying to conquer the emotions he experiences to do his work. Kate Daniels uses two very effective rhetorical questions in the final two lines of "War Photograph". "For how can she know, her feet beating a path on another continent? " this line is quite confusing until it is backed up with the second question, "How can she know what we really are? " These questions are both asking the same question that really begins to cause the reader to think about ideas that they have never thought about beforehand.

How can she know what we really are? " the writer begins to expresses her opinion on what sort of individuals we really are, how can she know that we caused her pain and cannot help her or will not help her? We feel as helpless as she does and we are not Gods that can help her, she doesn't know this, she does not know "what we really are". These comments awaken emotions of guilt and sadness; the child seems so helpless with no knowledge of the world we live in. We are so far away from them and "look so terribly human". This oxymoron is used to explain the thoughts of the writer.

Being human is not supposed to be a terrible thing, "terribly" suggests negativity and somewhat horror. This coupled with "human" suggests an

opposite idea because being human is not something terrible. The writer is trying to show us we are lacking humanity and cannot understand how we can be human if we do not care for one another. This last section of the poem has great impact on the reader, forcing the reader to contemplate on the situation and realise that the attitude that humans possess at the moment need to change to end the suffering of other human beings, that can be observed from so far away.

In conclusion I believe "War Photograph" has a great deal more impact than "War Photographer" The poem is structured well with simple short sharp sentences that are extremely effective and also longer detailed descriptions. Both these poems convey strong anti-war messages that concentrate on our society's lack of humanity towards images of war, most often caused by our own hands.

Kate Daniels communicates this message in a much more obvious and frank manner in "War Photograph" than Carol Ann Duffy manages to in her poem "War Photographer". War Photograph" contains a great deal more emotion and is more focussed directly on the images of distress whereas "War Photographer" is looking at the reaction of the photographer to the same events, through his own eyes and this is what makes it have less impact on the reader. "War Photograph" by Kate Daniels is undoubtedly the most effective and has had the most impact on myself out of the two poems.