1. How do these words compare/ contrast?
red
nightmare heat
looters
open fire
ghost
blood stained
How do these words compare/ contrast?
rips
tears
Inside out
agony
flesh
blood-shadow
agonies
torn
bursts

2. War Photographer Remains
Poetry Comparison
War Photographer
Remains

3. Discuss: Content/Context
What is War Photographer about?
Does the poem have a message/moral?
How do we feel towards the photographer?
What would you say the context of the poem is?
What is Remains about?
How do you feel towards the ex-soldier?
How has war affected him?
What would you say is the context of the poem?

4. Language What do you notice about the language in ‘War Photographer’?
How does she use imagery/sound?
Are there any language patterns in the poem?
Is there any contrasting language in the poem?
What do you notice about the language in ‘Remains’?
How is imagery used?
How does the language affect the reader?
What is similar to the language in War Photgrapher?

5. Structure How would you describe the structure of ‘War Photographer?’
What effect does this structure have on the meaning of the poem/your interpretation of it?
How would you describe the structure of ‘Remains?’
Are the two poems structured in a similar way? How? Why?

6. Question:
Compare the way poets present the consequences of war in ‘War Photographer’ and one other poem.

7. Compare – 5 mins – fill in this grid.
Compare the way poets present the consequences of war in ‘War Photographer’ and one other poem.
War Photographer
Remains
Content
Language
Structure

8. Question:
Compare the way poets present the consequences of war in ‘War Photographer’ and one other poem.

9. How could you use this structure to answer the question?

10. Be the examiner – what would you grade this essay?
Give it 2 stars and a wish……
What would you like to do in your own essay that this student has done?

11. Content/Context
Both Duffy and Armitage wrote the poems War Photographer and Remains to show the consequences of war. Duffy describes the contrast between the experiences that a war photographer has on the front line and then when he returns home, it is clear that the photographer is haunted by memories of war and feels guilty. Similarly Armitage describes the experiences a soldier who is haunted by memories of war and cannot stop dreaming; the ‘remains’ of his memories haunt him. Both writers are trying to show their readers how war effects survivors, they explore the effect of PTSD and teach readers that war can cause powerful mental deterioration.

12. Language
The language of both poems is full of violent and bloody imagery. The rhyming couplet “in fields which don’t explode beneath the feet//of running children in a nightmare heat” is horrifying in the way it uses vivid imagery of ‘children’ being blown up. The assonance of ‘feet’ and ‘heat’ suggests the speed and intensity that the bombs explode and the idea of children dying in this way emphasises the terrible experiences of war. Similarly the soldier in ‘Remains’ describes the body of the man he shot as ‘sort of inside out’ – the imagery is shocking and graphic but the tone seems very calm, and almost detached. It’s as if the poet id telling us that war desensitises us. The poets are both successful in using vivid, horrifying imagery to show the reality of war and the awful things that people in war have to witness.

13. Language
It is not just witnessing terrible things in war that affects people negatively. In fact, both poets suggest that the memories after the war are even worse than being there. The war photographers memories are stored in the photos as ‘A hundred agonies in black and white’, Duffy contrasts the ‘hundred agonies’ with the newspaper editor picking ‘five or six’, the war photographer seems angry that so few of his photographs will be seen and the juxtaposition of ‘hundred’ and ‘five or six’ emphasises the fact the public don’t know enough or care about what war is really like, Duffy may be suggesting that the press des not report enough on the reality of war. Armitage also considers the way in which memories of war can effect people, but whereas the war photographer uses his photos to ensure people remember what war is like, the soldier in remains just wants to forget his experiences. However it is impossible ‘And the drink and drugs won’t flush him out-’, the metaphor of ‘flush’ shows how desperate the soldier is to get rid of his traumatic memories and the alliterative ‘drink and drugs’ creates a harsh angry tone as if he is frustrated that he can’t control his memories.

14. Structure
Armitage structures the line about ‘drink and drugs’ so that it is left hanging, the hyphen at the end of the stanza suggesting that the problem is unending and that his nightmares will last forever. Both poets employ a similar structure to show that memories haunt those who have been in war. The first half of each poem describes what war is like through bloody violent imagery, ‘open fire’, ‘tosses his guts back into his body’, ‘torn apart’, ‘blood-shadow’ the semantic pattern of violence and bloodshed in Remains vividly depicting the brutality of war. ‘War Photographer’ also uses the first half of the poem to explore violent imagery; ‘pain’, ‘explode’, ‘spools of suffering’ to emphasise the impact of violence. Both poems use structure in a similar way as the second half of each shows how the protagonists are affected by their experiences once they get home. However whereas the war photographer is frustrated that people don’t care about the effects of war and just read about it ‘between the bath and pre-lunch beers’, the soldier in Remains just wants to get rid of the memories and nightmares of the looters ‘bloody life in (his) hands.’

15. Message/Context
Both poets want to teach their readers how war effects those caught up in it. They follow a tradition of war poetry that seeks to let readers know the truth about what war is really like. They both explore the way that war effects the memory. However War Photographer focuses mainly on the way the public don’t understand what war is like by showing the photographers frustration at being unable to get his message across whereas Remains explores the idea that soldiers are haunted by the ‘remains’ of memories that they desperately want to forget.

16. Now use this structure to plan an essay.