War Photographer: A Poem by Carol Ann Duffy

An early poem by Duffy that could have been inspired by the career of Don McCullin

War Photographer was included in Carol Ann Duffy’s first major collection of poems, “Standing Female Nude”, which was originally published in 1985. It was therefore written before she became recognized as a major figure in contemporary English poetry, and long before she was appointed Poet Laureate for a 10-year term in 2009.

The subject of the poem could well be Don McCullin (born 1935), who had a long career as a photojournalist in several fields of conflict including Belfast, Beirut and Cambodia, as mentioned in the last line of the first stanza, and who was known personally to Carol Ann Duffy at a time in the 1970s. However, knowing this is not essential for understanding the poem, which could apply to any number of photographers who have had similar careers.

The poem comprises four stanzas, each of six lines. The lines have an average of ten syllables, but only an average — some are longer, others shorter. There is a degree of rhythmic irregularity, which is supported by the use of run-on lines and no attention paid to the convention of starting the first word of each line with an upper-case letter. This only applies if the previous line ends a sentence. We seem to be on the…