War Photographer (Edexcel GCSE English Literature)

Each poetry anthology in the GCSE contains 15 poems, and in the poetry question in the exam you will be given one poem on the paper – printed in full – and asked to compare this given poem to one other from the anthology. As this is a “closed book” exam, you will not have access to the other poems, so you will have to know them very well from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to learn. However, understanding four things about each poem will enable you to produce a top-mark response:

• The meaning of the poem and the story it tells 
• The ideas and messages the poet wanted to convey
• How the poet uses poetic techniques to convey their ideas and messages
• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas and themes of other poems in the anthology

Below is a guide to Carole Satyamurti’s 'War Photographer', from the Conflict anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
• Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

The poem has been taken from Pearson Edexcel’s poetry anthology, the full version of which can be found here.

In order to answer an essay question on any poem, it is essential that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• An explanation of the poem, line-by-line
• A commentary of each of these lines, outlining Satyamurti's intention and message

'War Photographer' in a nutshell

'War Photographer' is partly set in a fictional urban war zone that reflects many of the armed conflicts of the 1980s. The poem is a dramatic monologue, in which the speaker, a war photographer, analyses the moral implications of creating images that can create a false representation of war. The speaker compares a pair of photographs she has taken; one is of a laughing pair of privileged young women and one is of a young girl carrying a baby. The second image is taken in the moment before a bomb explodes. However, when the photograph is published, the caption presents it as a hopeful image. Satyamurti criticises the way that pictures can tell an untrue story, and people’s unwillingness to engage with the truth.

'War Photographer' breakdown

Lines 1–8

“The reassurance of the frame is flexible 

– you can think that just outside it 

people eat, sleep, love normally

while I seek out the tragic, the absurd, 

to make a subject. 

Or if the picture’s such as lifts the heart 

the firmness of the edges can convince you 

this is how things are”

Explanation

• The edges of a picture, its “frame”, can be interpreted in different ways
• The frame can safely contain the picture, separating it from reality:
• This allows people to believe that everything outside the frame is fine, and that people’s lives are unaffected
• They don’t see what the war photographer sees when she takes the picture:
• She looks for tragic and absurd images and experiences them personally
• Therefore, she knows the reality of what is outside the frame
• However, if the picture is a happy one, people can convince themselves that it is a true representation of life:
• They choose to see the picture’s “edges” as solid, with nothing disturbing going on beyond them, so they can convince themselves that “this is how things are”
  
  

Satyamurti's intention

• Satyamurti uses the visual imagery of a picture’s “frame” or “edges” to represent two things:
• The physical frame of a picture
• The way that people choose to interpret pictures
• She uses the imagery of the frame to criticise people who only want to be reassured:
• She is a war photographer, so most of her pictures are “tragic” or “absurd”
• But people interpret them as they want, rejecting tragic pictures and accepting happier ones
• Thus, they can gain “reassurance”, because they can choose what to believe
• The war photographer knows that this is not “how things are”, because a picture is only a moment in time:
• The reality surrounding that moment may not be a positive one
• This is especially true of pictures taken in war zones, like the one later in the poem

Lines 9–12

“– as when at Ascot once

I took a pair of peach, sun-gilded girls 

rolling, silk-crumpled, on the grass 

in champagne giggles” 

Explanation

• The speaker remembers a picture she took at Ascot:
• The two girls in the picture are healthy and suntanned
• They are wearing silk and drinking champagne
• This implies that they are wealthy and enjoy a life of luxury
• They are rolling about on the grass, crumpling their silk dresses:
• This suggests that they are privileged enough not to care about ruining their expensive clothes

Satyamurti's intention

• The girls in the picture represent carefree happiness:
• They are either ignorant of the tragedy in the world, or do not care
• This stanza reinforces the ideas in the first stanza:
• People would rather believe in the truth of this picture, because it is happy
• However, the imagery in this stanza contrasts with the later images in the poem:
• Satyamurti is illustrating the fact that some people enjoy wealth and luxury, while others endure war and tragedy

Lines 13–16

“– as last week, when I followed a small girl 

staggering down some devastated street, 

hip thrust out under a baby’s weight. 

She saw me seeing her; my finger pressed.”

Explanation

• In this stanza, the photographer remembers something that happened “last week”:
• The fact that the events she recalls are so recent implies that the situation she photographed is continuing
• She was following a “small girl”, who was “staggering down some devastated street”:
• The street is devastated by previous bombings
• The reason the girl was “staggering” is that she was carrying a baby, but was too small or weak to do so easily
• The vivid visual description of her “hip thrust out” conveys the baby’s weight, which almost unbalances her
• This emphasises her smallness and vulnerability
• The girl sees the photographer about to take a photo of her

Satyamurti's intention

• Satyamurti follows the previous scene of privileged young women giggling at Ascot with the scene of a young girl struggling to carry a baby in a devastated street:
• The young women are carefree, while the young girl has the responsibility of a baby, even though she is just a child herself
• The young women are enjoying a luxurious lifestyle, while the girl has to live in a ruined city
• This juxtaposition illustrates the injustice of inequality
• Some people enjoy champagne, while others struggle to survive  
• The speaker’s description of taking the photo allows readers to experience her reality:
• She does not help the girl because she is only there to record what she sees
• The emphasis on “seeing” reinforces the fact that seeing, or witnessing, is all she can do
• The reader becomes a witness who sees the situation from her point of view

Lines 17–21

“At the corner, the first bomb of the morning 

shattered the stones. 

Instinct prevailing, she dropped her burden 

and, mouth too small for her dark scream, 

began to run…”

Explanation

• When the girl reaches the corner, a bomb goes off, shattering the buildings around it:
• “the first bomb of the morning” implies that this is one of many bombs
• This suggests that the bombing of the city streets is constant
• The girl’s instinct to save herself takes over, and she drops the baby and runs:
• The fact that her mouth is “too small for her dark scream” conveys her terror and the volume of her scream
• It also emphasises how young and vulnerable she is

Satyamurti's intention

• The speaker shows the horror of conflict in unflinching detail:
  • This reflects the war photographer’s role – she is there to record events

• However, it is left up to the reader to decide whether the baby survives or dies:
  • The speaker has taken the picture just before the explosion and doesn’t describe the aftermath
• Satyamurti is prompting readers to make the same choices as people who look at pictures and decide what to believe

Lines 22–28

“The picture showed the little mother 

the almost-smile. Their caption read 

‘Even in hell the human spirit 

triumphs over all.’ 

But hell, like heaven, is untidy, 

its boundaries 

arbitrary as a blood stain on a wall.”

Explanation

• The picture the speaker takes shows the young girl just before the explosion:
• She is described as a “little mother” because she was carrying the baby 
• Her expression is an “almost smile” or half-smile, because she knows she is having her photo taken
• However, when the picture is published, the publishers print it with a caption that makes it seem like a positive picture:
• They focus on the bravery and goodness – the “human spirit” – of the young girl who is caring for a baby in the “hell” of a war zone
• “Their caption” suggests that the young girl is heroic
• This is undermined for the poem’s readers by the speaker’s previous description of what happened next
• By dropping the baby to save her own life, the girl shows desperation, not heroism
• The speaker returns to the imagery of the frame in her closing observation:
• She states that the “boundaries” of hell, just like those of heaven, are arbitrary
• This means that they are random and based on personal choice or preference
• The simile of those boundaries being as “arbitrary as a bloodstain on a wall” links them with the death and destruction that has taken place in reality

Satyamurti's intention

• Satyamurti wants to reveal the way that pictures can present a false image of reality, or allow people to deceive themselves:
• The picture does not show the girl’s terror or the baby’s death
• Instead, it looks as if the girl is smiling, which allows the publishers to mislead the public
• The speaker knows the truth, but she is implicated in the lie because she took the picture:
• However, she conveys her anger by distancing herself from “their” misleading caption
• She reveals the truth about war that the media fails to show
• The final three lines characterise the suffering of war as “arbitrary”: 
• Some people enjoy the “heaven” of a life of luxury, while others endure the “hell” of living in a war zone
• The injustice of the “arbitrary” nature of war links back to the other injustices in the poem:
• For instance, the injustice of people choosing not to see reality, but comforting themselves by believing in happy interpretations of pictures
• Their actions are also “arbitrary”, because they are not driven by reason or reality
• Instead, they prefer not to see the tragedies of other people’s lives

This section is split into three separate areas: form, structure and language. You should demonstrate your understanding of the poem by linking these technical areas of Satyamurti's writing together. Think about how Satyamurti's language, structure and form contribute to her ideas and message in 'War Photographer'. 

You will gain far more marks by focusing on Satyamurti's themes than on individual poetic techniques. Therefore, the analysis in the following sections is arranged by theme, and examines the intentions behind Satyamurti's decisions about:

• Form
• Structure
• Language

Form

'War Photographer' is a dramatic monologue that narrates the experience of a photographer in a war zone. The first-person speaker addresses the unseen listener directly, which makes it feel as though the reader is being addressed directly, too. The poem is written in free verse, with no regular rhythm or rhyme scheme. This reflects the speaker’s train of thought as she makes connections between one subject and another. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
The representation of war	The form of the dramatic monologue makes readers feel as though they are being addressed directly: In the first stanza, the speaker states that “you can think” that a picture represents a deviation from normality or, alternatively, that a happy picture “can convince you” that it is a true representation	Satyamurti wants to make readers question their own behaviour and responses to the pictures they see: The speaker’s direct address challenges readers to ask whether they, like the “you” in the poem, make decisions about pictures based on personal comfort or preference
The horror of conflict	The poem employs a free verse form that mimics the speaker’s train of thought: For example, the second and third stanzas begin: “- as when at Ascot once” and “- as last week”	This technique allows the speaker to connect ideas and subjects realistically: It illustrates the way that one thought leads to another The way that happy, reassuring images connect with tragic ones emphasises the horror of conflict

Structure

The poem begins with a metaphor about the way in which the frame or edges of a picture allow people to interpret them as they choose. It then moves into the past tense to juxtapose two scenarios: one at a racing event in England, then one in a war zone in a foreign country. The fourth stanza describes a horrific scene when a bomb explodes in the city where the speaker is taking photographs. The final stanza describes what happened to the picture the speaker took just before the bomb went off. The structure is cyclical, with the final stanza linking back to the first stanza’s critique of the way pictures can be misinterpreted. Satyamurti uses simile to convey the true horror of what the picture represents and enjambment to mimic the speaker’s train of thought and to emphasise certain words and phrases.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
The representation of war	The metaphor of the frame is used in two ways:  It refers to the physical edges of a picture and it also represents the way that people can choose how they perceive the picture The metaphor of the “boundaries” in the final stanza links back to the frame in the first stanza	By linking pictures with people’s responses, the poem connects objects with people’s actions: The picture itself has no agency, but people do The poem asks people to question their responses to pictures Satyamurti wants to challenge the injustice of false representations of tragedies like wars
	The two descriptions in the second and third stanzas are connected: The “sun-gilded girls” and the “small girl” with the baby are both pictures taken by the speaker One is an example of the “absurd” subjects the speaker “seek[s] out”, while the other is an example of a “tragic” subject	The juxtaposition of these two images, and the contrast between them, emphasises the theme of injustice:  The “absurd” picture highlights the comfort and ease of wealth, while the “tragic” picture highlights the suffering and terror of war It is unjust and absurd that these contrasts exist, and that people do not acknowledge them
The horror of conflict	The enjambment used throughout the poem reflects the speaker’s thought patterns as they move from one subject to another: The two dashes (-) that start the second and third stanzas indicate the connection between them in the speaker’s mind	Connecting the happy image of the young women with the image of the young girl shows that the speaker cannot escape her memories of the horror of war: The speaker cannot disconnect the images of privilege from images of tragedy
	The simile in the final stanza connects the “hell” of war with the way it is misrepresented in the media:  The “boundaries” of hell are as “arbitrary as a blood stain on a wall” The way the picture is presented in the media is also “arbitrary”	Connecting the representation of war with war itself emphasises two things:  The horror of the conflict is conveyed by the bloodstain on the wall and the “arbitrary” nature of the violence The misrepresentation of the conflict adds to the speaker’s sense of horror

Language

Satyamurti uses a range of language techniques to alter the tone of the poem around the subject that the speaker is narrating. The sounds of the language also contribute to the contrast and the connections between the comforting and the tragic pictures the speaker discusses.

Theme	Evidence	Poet's intention
The representation of war	The poem employs alliteration and assonance in the description of the two young women:  The alliteration of “g” sounds in “sun-gilded girls”, “grass” and “giggles” echoes the sounds of their giggling The assonance of the short “i” sounds of “gilded”, “silk” and “giggles” conveys happiness, because the mouth makes a smiling shape to pronounce the sounds	The combination of alliteration and assonance in this description makes it seem happy and unchallenging: This gives it a sense of smoothness and completeness, because all the sounds are contained within a short description This effect makes the following description of the violence of the war zone even more shocking in contrast with it This further emphasises the injustice of the contrast
	The poem also uses sibilance in the descriptions of both the giggling girls and the war zone: The repeated “s” sounds of “sun”, “girls”, “silk” and “grass” echoes the soft fizz of the champagne the girls are drinking The repeated “s” sounds of “small”, “staggering”, “devastated street” and “saw me seeing her” convey the sinister, random nature of violent conflict, and possibly the whistling sound of falling bombs	The sibilance in these two descriptions connects them with each other: The technique draws attention to the juxtaposition of the two images It also highlights the contrast between them This makes the second description, when the sibilance represents horror rather than enjoyment, more jarring
The horror of conflict	The poem employs harsh plosive sounds to emphasise the horror of the war zone: The “st” and “t” sounds of “staggering”, “devastated”, “thrust” and “shattered” convey the speaker’s fear and horror at what she is seeing	The harsh, jagged language used to describe the street and the young girl conveys the sounds of war: The spitting sounds of the hard plosives echo gunfire and buildings shattering It also conveys the speaker’s horror, as the sounds have to be almost spat out
	Sibilance is also used in the third stanza to convey discomfort: The “s” sounds of “She saw me seeing her; my finger pressed” (line 16) perhaps illustrate the speaker’s discomfort at only being able to record the scene, rather than help the girl and the baby	The sibilance of this line adds to the tone of unease in the stanza:  “She saw me seeing her” also draws attention to the exchange between the speaker and the girl This exchange could represent their shared humanity, or their shared horror, or both

Context can offer important insights into the poem, but avoid using random pieces of information about Satyamurti or her historical context. Aim to combine contextual information with your analysis of the poem's themes to demonstrate your understanding of Satyamurti’s ideas and message. In 'War Photographer', the main focus is on the representation and horror of war, so this section is bullet-pointed under the following themes: 

• The representation of war
• The horror of conflict

The representation of war

• Carole Satyamurti (1939–2019) was a British poet, sociologist and translator
• She taught at the University of East London and the Tavistock Clinic:
• Her work in both places focused on the stories people tell about themselves
• She used ideas from psychoanalysis to understand people’s stories
• Satyamurti’s interest in psychoanalysis can be seen in her presentation of her speaker’s experience in ‘War Photographer’:
• Although the speaker’s tone is precise and observational, the language she uses is often emotive and evocative
• Satyamurti reveals the feelings beneath the surface of the speaker’s account, just like psychoanalysis aims to reveal a person’s subconscious feelings
• In the same way, she reveals the truth beneath the surface of the picture
• War photographers photograph armed conflicts and their effects on people and places:
• They often work in very dangerous situations, and are sometimes injured or killed in the process of taking photographs
• The tradition of war photography is that war photographers should be neutral observers:
• That means they should not influence what they are photographing
• This is shown in ‘War Photographer’ when the speaker doesn’t help the girl or the baby 
• Journalists and photographers who work in areas of conflict are protected by international law:
• However, they are sometimes targeted by combatants to prevent photographic evidence being shared publicly in the media
• In ‘War Photographer’, the facts are misrepresented by the media, creating a further level of injustice in the conflict

The horror of conflict

• Satyamurti’s poetry often deals with painful subjects in a very direct way:
• Her subjects include cancer, death and war
• One of her main themes is the fragility of human life
• Her poems also address the way that suffering affects people as individuals 
• ‘War Photographer’ therefore combines many of her interests as a poet

• When ‘War Photographer’ was written in 1987, several major wars and conflicts were going on in the world:
• One of these was the Iran-Iraq war of 1980–1988
• The Soviet-Afghan War of 1979–1989 was also in progress
• The Lebanon War of 1982 happened just before Satyamurti wrote ‘War Photographer’
• Satyamurti was aware that, while the UK was not involved in any wars at the time, people in other countries were experiencing terrible suffering:
• Instead of presenting a poem about war in general, she chose to present war from the perspective of a war photographer
• The details seen by the war photographer reveal the individual suffering caused by war and conflict

In your exam, you will be asked to compare the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. That means it’s a good idea to revise pairs of poems together, in order to understand how each poet presents their ideas about conflict. This will enable you to write a thorough analysis of their similarities and differences. In 'War Photographer', Satyamurti's main themes are the representation of war and the horror of conflict, so the following comparisons would be a good starting point:

• 'War Photographer' and 'What Were They Like?’
• 'War Photographer' and 'Belfast Confetti’ 

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell
• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

'War Photographer' and ‘What Were They Like?'

Comparison in a nutshell:

These poems give you the opportunity to compare two different approaches to the way that conflict is represented. Satyamurti focuses on how conflict can be misrepresented, while Levertov depicts the representation of a war after it has happened. Both poems explore the way that truth can be distorted or concealed, and each poet uses both similar and different techniques to get their message across.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems contain angry critiques of the misrepresentation of war
Evidence and analysis	'War Photographer'	'What Were They Like?'
	Satyamurti critiques the way that people choose to remain ignorant about the reality of war:  She presents the real suffering her speaker witnesses in order to challenge the “reassurance of the frame” The war photographer wants to reveal the true nature of war and conflict, to confront the comforting lies that people tell themselves	Levertov also critiques ignorance about the true consequences of war for the Vietnamese people: The first speaker’s questions focus on Vietnamese culture before the war, showing their ignorance of the war’s effects  The second speaker’s responses illustrate the way that war has damaged or destroyed many aspects of Vietnamese life
	The truth of the conflict is conveyed in harsh language:  Words such as  “staggering”, “devastated”, “shattered”  and “scream” convey the violence of the situation the speaker witnesses They echo the sounds of gunfire and destruction	Harsh language is also used to convey the truth about the conflict:  Words like “stone”, “bitter”, “smashed” and “scream” convey the experiences of the victims of the war They reflect the complete destruction of homes and families in the war
	Satyamurti reveals the way in which reality is concealed by false representations of the war: The war photographer’s picture of the young girl doesn’t show what actually happened This incomplete record allows viewers to “convince” themselves that “this is how things are”	Levertov also illustrates the way that the reality of the war is concealed in its aftermath:  The speaker reveals that the Vietnamese people have lost the ability to express their experiences due to the oppression they have suffered She states that there is still an “echo” of their speech, but “It is silent now”, so the record of their suffering is incomplete
	The ending of the poem shows how the truth about war can be distorted: The caption for the speaker’s picture presents it as a positive representation of “the human spirit” The reality of the speaker’s experience and the truth about the war are obscured by this misrepresentation	The final line of the poem shows how unreliable representations of war can be:  The speaker asks “Who can say?” and repeats “It is not remembered”, showing the way that truth can be lost in the aftermath of war The reality of the war’s effects are obscured by suffering and silence
	Satyamurti and Levertov both criticise people’s deliberate ignorance about the reality of war, and both poems reveal the truth that has been obscured by misrepresentation and oppression

Differences:

Topic sentence	The poems both address the representation of war, but use different structures, voices and descriptive techniques to do so
Evidence and analysis	'War Photographer'	'What Were They LIke?'
	Satyamurti’s poem is a dramatic monologue, which is narrated in the first person:  This gives the speaker’s account a direct tone and allows the reader to enter the speaker’s perspective	Levertov’s poem is a dialogue, with the second speaker providing answers to questions asked by the third speaker: The second speaker gives her account in the third person, using terms like “they”, which creates a distance for the reader
	The structure of the poem is cyclical:  It returns at the end to the main idea presented at the beginning of the poem, about the way reality is represented	The structure of the poem is linear: It presents the effects of the war  as a series of statements about the way it has affected the Vietnamese people
	The violence of war is referred to indirectly in the poem: The speaker comments that the “boundaries” of “hell” are “arbitrary as a bloodstain on a wall”  This metaphor evokes the randomness of the violence and its representation	The speaker refers very directly to the violence of the war in this poem: The second speaker relates how the “children were killed” and “the bones were charred”  This conveys the physical reality of the conflict very directly
	Satyamurti uses a direct style and metaphorical descriptions of the effects of war, while Levertov uses an indirect form of narration and direct descriptions of the physical realities of the conflict

'War Photographer' and 'Belfast Confetti'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both poems explore their speakers’ experiences of conflict as witnesses who have been involved in a violent event. Both poems address the horror of the violence they witness and the way that ordinary life is torn apart by conflict. Both are angry poems, but while Carson focuses on the immediate effects of violent conflict on his speaker, Satyamurti’s poem addresses the misrepresentation of the horror of war.  

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems convey the horror of war and the reactions of those who witness it directly
Evidence and analysis	'War Photographer'	'Belfast Confetti'
	The setting for this poem is “some devastated street” in a city: The speaker observes the bomb going off “At the corner” of the street The horror of the conflict is conveyed by the suddenness and randomness of the explosion	The setting for this poem is also a city street: The speaker describes the “alleyways and side streets” of the city The speaker’s horror is emphasised by the fact that the streets he knows “so well” have become the site of sudden violence
	Satyamurti’s speaker is trying to represent the horror of the scene she is witnessing:  She is trying to take a photograph in a war zone However, her picture is incomplete and unclear, because it depicts the moment before the violence	Carson’s speaker is trying to describe the horror of his experience: We see him trying “to complete a sentence in my head” However, he is unable to present a clear or complete picture because of his fear and disorientation
	Satyamurti uses plosives and harsh-sounding language to describe the devastation of the explosion: She describes how the bomb “shattered the stones” to convey the destruction caused by the bomb	Carson also uses hard plosives and jagged language to convey the harshness of the violence: Words like “stuttering”, “asterisk” and “broken type” suggest the destruction surrounding the speaker
	The ending of the poem shows how the horror of the conflict has affected the speaker’s perception:  She states that the “boundaries” of this “hell”  are “as arbitrary as a blood stain on a wall”, conveying the terrifying randomness of the violence she has witnessed	The ending of the poem shows how the horror of the conflict has affected the speaker’s perception of himself: He can only repeat the questions he is asked: “What is/My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?” His sense of reality has been shaken by his shock and terror
	Both Satyamurti and Carson illustrate the terror of war and show the way in which it changes their speakers’ perceptions of reality

Differences:

Topic sentence	Although both poems convey the horror of conflict, their speakers differ in their situations and responses
Evidence and analysis	'War Photographer'	'Belfast Confetti'
	The speaker is a war photographer who has put herself in the situation deliberately: She takes the photograph of the young girl to record and witness what she sees	The speaker is a bystander who is accidentally caught up the sudden violence: He tries to record his experience, but is unable to do so and can’t even “complete a sentence” in his head
	Satyamurti’s speaker is able to record an image just before the bomb goes off: However, the true horror of what she witnesses is not represented with accuracy by the media	Carson’s speaker tries to record his responses, but finds it impossible:  He can only note that “Every move is punctuated” or blocked, and he can make no sense of the horror he experiences
	Satyamurti’s speaker is angry about the way the horror she has witnessed is misrepresented:  “Their caption” for her photograph presents it as a positive image of “the human spirit”	Carson’s speaker also conveys his anger, but for a different reason: He is angry because he feels trapped in an oppressive situation that is not of his choosing
	Satyamurti’s speaker is a professional witness who is angry about the misrepresentation of the horrors she has seen, while Carson’s speaker is angry about being a victim of a horrifying situation that he remains trapped in