What do these things have in common? Why have the writers used them in their poetry to achieve their aims?

War Photographer. LO: To explore how Duffy use language and structure to characterise the war photographer To interpret the poet’s intention and message in comparison to other poems studied

What do you know about this poem? Why use a war photographer as a character?

Think: What memories is the war photographer remembering? In his darkroom he is finally alone with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows, as though this were a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass. He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands which did not tremble then though seem to now. Rural England. Home again to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel, to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet of running children in a nightmare heat. Something is happening. A stranger’s features faintly start to twist before his eyes, a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries of this man’s wife, how he sought approval without words to do what someone must and how the blood stained into foreign dust. A hundred agonies in black-and-white from which his editor will pick out five or six for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers. From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns a living and they do not care. Think: What memories is the war photographer remembering? Pair: How have these memories affected him? Share: How has the war affected the people living in these countries? What about the people in Britain? How does it affect them?

Can you find a quote to support your allocated idea in the poem? The man has been to all the trouble spots of the world The man is now working in a familiar part of the world which is peaceful by comparison to the places mentioned above. Again, emphasises safety and peaceful life at home, shocking image, contrast with the violence abroad. He remembers the death of a man and the picture he had taken with the unspoken permission of the man’s wife. Students are allocated a number – when they feedback, students can annotate their poems in their booklets. How is language / structure used in your quote to support your idea?

The horror of war? Indifference to victims of conflict? MINI REFLECTION - What does this poem teach us about: The horror of war? Indifference to victims of conflict? The speaker in War Photographer makes comparisons between ‘home’ and ‘abroad’. In your pairs, complete the grid below…   Quote about home? Writer’s message? Quote about abroad?   Based on our knowledge of ‘home’ and ‘abroad’, what does this poem teach us NOW about: The horror of war? Indifference to victims of conflict?

How to write a comparative poetry essay.

Introduction – Content and Context (focus on writer’s messages and links to context) Directly address the question. Write about the content; what happens in each poem – making sure you compare similarities and differences. Make sure you explain why both poets wrote their poems (link to context) Language Analysis (PEELcPEEL) X2 Write about the language features of poem 1. Use PEEL and make sure you analyse the effect of language choices on the reader. Explore how the language techniques and choice of words in the poem support the writer’s purpose/message. Compare language features of poem 1 to poem 2. Write about the language features of poem 2. Use PEEL and make sure you analyse the effect of language choices on the reader. Explore how the language techniques and choice of words in the poem support the writer’s purpose/message. Structure Analysis (PEELcPEEL) X1 Write about the structure of poem 1; make sure you explore the effect of structure/structural features; how does the structure help to express the writer’s message or make the reader feel? Compare the structures used in the two poems. Write about the structure of poem 2; make sure you explore the effect of structure/structural features; how does the structure help to express the writer’s message or make the reader feel? Conclusion/Message/Personal Response What do you think the two poets’ messages are? Are they successful in conveying these messages?

Introduction – Content and Context Language Analysis (PEELcPEEL) X2 Structure Analysis (PEELcPEEL) X1 Conclusion/Message/Personal Response

Compare the ways that the agony of war is presented in Exposure and one other poem Both Exposure and War Photographer explore the agony of war and the way it effects people and makes them suffer. However, whereas War Photographer explores the suffering of a photographer returning home from a warzone, Exposure explores the suffering of soldiers dying in freezing conditions during World War 1. Owen wrote Exposure to show people at home what war was really like, whereas Duffy wrote war photographer to explore the effects of PTSD and to show how war effects outsiders looking in.

Model PEELcPEEL (language focus) Both poets use powerful imagery to describe how nightmarish and agonising war can be. In WP Duffy vividly describes the death of ‘running children in a nightmare heat’; the adjective ‘nightmare’ to describe the ‘heat’ shows the intensity of suffering and the physical trauma of stepping on a land mine. She chooses to focus on ‘children’ stepping on land-mines to heighten the emotional impact of the description on the reader and to emphasise the suffering of the war photographer caused by his memories. The photographer’s agony is further heightened by the guilt he feels for being able to escape to “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet” – he gets to survive but has to live with the memories of the dead and wounded “children” he witnessed in war. Similarly Owen, in his poem Exposure, exposes the intense suffering people endure in war as he describes dying soldiers using the simile “like twitching agonies of men among its brambles’ to emphasise the awful agony that soldiers suffer when dying of exposure. The powerful verb ‘twitching’ vividly displays the agony of the mens’ slow dying. And the sensory imagery of ‘brambles’ allows the reader to almost feel the agony of the men as the ice freezes them to death. Therefore both poets use imagery to explore the agony of war, both mental (in WP) and physical (in Exposure).

Things to consider when writing about structure: What does the poem look like? (form/shape) Enjambment Repetition Rhyme Punctuation Line lengths.

Exposure is structured in a regular pattern where the fifth line of each stanza is much shorter than the other four. This has the effect of emphasising the final lines in each stanza ‘But nothing happens’ makes the reader empathise with the soldiers who have to wait in the freezing weather for combat, or death. The line is repeated to emphasise how long they wait and later changes to ‘Is it that we are dying?’ to show the reader the inevitability of death and the horror and agony of war. The horror and agony of war is also emphasised in War Photographer through the use of enjambment. He describes children being blown-up by land mines: “to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet//of running children in a nightmare street.” The enjambment emphasises the phrase “of running children” allowing the reader to see who the real victims of war are, making us feel very upset as we imagine the graphic scene of these children’s deaths. The photographer feels guilty because they have escaped the war but the dead children have not.

Speed Writing – 10 minutes! Based on today’s lesson, let’s select one language / structure point to compare War Photographer to Ozymandias or My Last Duchess and write it using PEELCPEEL! Both ‘War Photographer’ and ________ use ________ to present the idea that… Write as a class model or individually or start it and get pupils to finish it – depends upon time & focus of the class! Pupils refer to overall essay structure on previous slide to write their paragraphs. Could get students to generate success criteria if there is time…