Stanza One

1. Stanza One • What person is the poem written in? 3rd person omniscient narrator

2. In the first stanza the photographer is in the 'darkroom' and the 'only light is red'. What are the connotations? 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass.

3. idea of evil, darkness He is an outsider. 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass. The use of the word “finally” suggests that he’s been through a lot recently and he is somewhat glad to be alone now.

4. Plural of spools indicates the sheer number of images the photographer has taken. Sibilance. 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass.

5. use of metaphor: The photographer's film is described as containing the suffering of people and is said to be laid out 'in ordered rows'. This last image brings to mind the graves of hundreds of people, both soldiers and civilians, from memorials around the world. 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass.

6. 'ordered rows' would sound innocent enough in other contexts, but here it makes us think of graves or soldiers 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass. The "ordered rows" of film spools may suggest how the photographer tries to bring order to what he records, to interpret or make sense of it.

7. Literal meaning: It is the colour of light bulb used when a dark room is in use to allow the photographer to see what he is doing without damaging the film. Connotations: blood, danger, anger, hate, fire, rage, fury, 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass. The room is gloomy and filled with an eerie red light at once symbolic of spilled blood.

8. "redness" of the darkroom acts as the only light, literally and metaphorically. The redness is only the real "light" in the pictures - spilled blood that released the soldiers from duty. 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass. The dim atmosphere and the fact that he could be called, "a priest preparing to intone a mass" suggests imagery of a funeral.

9. Shows how fragile we are and how short life is. This list is of places where life is even briefer than normal, because of wars. 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass.

10. All flesh eventually has only vegetative value, and is trampled upon. 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 is a church and he a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Phenh. All flesh is grass.

11. 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 the nightmare heat. Literal Meaning – this is the photography fluid required to develop the pictures he has taken Metaphorically - "solutions" suggests that the photos may be the answer to stopping the war.

12. The photographer himself is disturbed by the images he is developing 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 the nightmare heat. Back in the safety of England, he trembles in a way he did not when he was actually there. 

13. 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 the nightmare heat. It is a message that when doing the "job", the photographer feels nothing; he is devoid of emotion, simply earning a living. However, gazing at the pictures in his own space, he is filled with emotion.

14. 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 the nightmare heat. Duffy a negative impression of British people. Their biggest concerns can be forgotten simply by having nice weather.

15. 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 the nightmare heat. Duffy contrasts the fields in England with those abroad. The image is shocking, because he thinks of land mines exploding under "the feet of running children".

16. Literally – the heat in some of the countries he visits would be overbearing The word “nightmare” brings in the idea that he is struggling to deal with the images he has seen – that it in fact gives him nightmares. 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 the nightmare heat.

17. What "is happening" in the third stanza is that an image is gradually appearing as a photo develops. 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.

18. 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. All of a sudden, an image reveals itself. It is the face of a man who died in the war. As the photo appears it seems like a half-formed ghost. Implies it is the picture of someone who has now died and he is being haunted by the image/memory.

19. 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. He is haunted by the distraught wife whose dead husband he photographed. He sought her permission and did ‘what someone must'. 

20. 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. The photographer recalls both the reaction of the wife on seeing her husband die. He is not able to ask for permission to take the picture (either there is no time or he does not speak the language or both) but he seeks "approval without words". Implies she too believes that it is the right thing to do.

21. The blood is perhaps “stained” into his memory and he can’t get rid of the memories. 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.

22. Attitude: Duffy’s and the photographer. • What do you think Duffy’s attitude is to war, and how the public deal with what happens in other countries? • How do you think she feels about the photographer? • How do you think the photographer feels about his job?

23. The photographer has recorded some hundred images which are only a small sample of what has happened, yet only a handful will ever be shown. The rest will never be seen and so what is the point in taking them. 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. "In black and white" is ambiguous: it suggests the colour of the photos but also the contrast of good and evil.

24. 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. Contrast between the “agonies” and the way the editor picks out photos.

25. Although the reader may be moved, this sympathy is short-lived. 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. The readers ‘do not care'.  Their eyes will ‘prick with tears', but only briefly as they laze about.  Their real concerns are their own lives.

26. "The bath" and "Pre-lunch beers" are luxuries. They have a contrast with the suffering people in the war. 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.

27. 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. The idea that the pictures are only to "supplement" a Sunday paper shows the attitude towards them. The have lost importance.

28. 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. Finally, the photographer remains unattached as he travels in an airplane to his next "job" where "he earns a living" . He has left his emotion behind and yet readers ultimately "do not care.