The plight of the photographer gets worsened as the poem progresses because in the second stanza the poet seems to justify the fact that the photographer irrespective of all his concern and feelings ‘has a job to do,’ so the tone shifts from melancholic to a more realistic one. The photographer for the inner ‘Solutions slop in trays,’ reveals that the poet sustains this realistic approach and therefore seems to make use of intended pun. The word ‘solutions’ have double application, solutions that the photographer has in his tray and the solutions that the warring nations have in hand. It is quite ironical because at home the photographer’s hands are trembling for the fact that he cannot bear the mental torture but at the war front he did his job religiously because his hands ‘did not tremble then.’
The poet very successfully brings the dilemma of the photographer when she makes use of contrast. It is seen that the photographer’s feelings are brought out in two contrasting situations, at home and while at warfront. The poet continues to describe the sufferings of the photographer when his mental state is compared just because he is travelling between the two contrasting worlds – one is the warfront which is full of destruction and chaos and the other is ‘Rural England,’ probably countryside that is peaceful and serene. He compares the pain of war to simple pain of changing weather back at home in England. There being nothing worse then the harsh weather that the children have to face as against the mines that explode on the running feet of the children affected by war. This only tells us that the photographer longs for peace and he is deeply moved by the affected children. His prolonged thoughts are presented with great effect by the use of enjambment in this line and this adds to the effect of continuity of thoughts.
From a realistic tone the poet moves on to a mysterious tone when she opens this third stanza with ‘something is happening.’ Probably something unforgettable, frustrating and unbearable is experienced. This is unfolded in the subsequent line, ‘half-formed ghost,’ it’s the body of a dead soldier which seems to be haunting the photographer who is dead. His conscience is pricking him for he had to seek the dead soldier’s permission to take the picture of her dead husband. The soldier who was committed and had submitted himself to fufill his duties was then one with dust. What is bothering the photographer is the sorry state of the people affected by war and the insensitiveness of the people towards the same.
The poem is written in third person omniscient narration. It is basically written from three different perspectives that is the poet’s, reader’s and the photographer’s view point. The poet assimilates all her thoughts in the concluding stanza when she expresses that the agonies are in ‘black and white’ again the use of contrast is employed simply to state that facts are in ‘black and white,’ also implying the contrast of good and evil. For good, she means to say the goodness of the photographer and for the evil she means, the insensitive people around because the editor will pick ‘five or six’ from hundred agonies. This is hyperbole, an exaggeration to sympathize with the photographer and bring out the cold and distant attitude of the hard hearted people for the fact that the editor will randomly pick ‘five or six’ to complete his report. This report, she further states will act as a ‘Sunday Supplement.’ By this she means to say that people will tend to have a fulfilling experience by reading the supplement on a Sunday in England.
Furthermore, she adds on to the irony and sarcasm when she says that the ‘reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers,’ which says that the readers will have tears momentarily which the poet presumes to be sort of melodrama for the simple reason that the readers might join the friends and have beer forgetting the loss and destruction happening around the world.
The concluding lines are very touching, ‘From the airplane he stares impassively,’ probably deliberatively getting numb to the sufferings, just because its his job and he gets his remuneration for it. For all that the photographer feels, he becomes one with the readers because at the end of the day even his focus is that of earning his livelihood by doing though a difficult task for which the people do not care.
There are four stanzas with six lines in each stanza. There are few lines having end rhyme like, ‘rows-glows, Mass-grass, then-again, feet-heat, eyes-cries, must-dust, where-care.’ Some of the lines in the stanzas do not rhyme and by this the readers can conclude that the thoughts and actions of the photographer lack consistency, he seems to be in a perplexed state. The opening of the poem instantly draws the readers attention to the setting of a room but the closure implies the fact that the poet has come out of the traumatic, frustrating experience and so is viewing the affected countries ‘impassively,’ that is in a very detached manner. The poet however, lays emphasis on the reality that he is actually earning his living by a job full of sorrow and dejection but, he seems to end with a contrast with the help of a sarcasm that the rest of the people don’t even care. So the poem closes with the photographer facing a conflict with his own self and he thereby leaves the readers with an impending mood of empathy and introspection thereby hitting on the message, to get sensitive to the sufferings and loss in and around.
