A poem which encourages the reader to feel sympathy is “War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy. The persona you are encouraged to feel sympathy towards is the war photographer. The poem features a war photographer who tries to deliver the message that suffering is wrong and should be stopped but is made to realise that the people “do not care” and his job is futile.
The poet makes use of word choice, imagery and structure to show that the war photographer feels isolated and alone. The poet refers to the war photographer as being “finally alone”. The use of the word “finally” suggests that the persona is relieved to be alone and is an isolated character. The word “alone” is at the end of the sentence which helps to emphasise …show more content…
The writer uses an alliteration to emphasise how gruesome the things are that the persona has witnessed. The expression “spools of suffering” has a literal and figurative meaning which is effective in encouraging the reader to feel sympathetic. The literal meaning of this expression is that the “spools” have undeveloped images of people suffering and simply states what is on the film whereas the figurative meaning plants an image in the mind of the reader that it is a spiral of suffering and it is never ending. The poet also uses word choice to encourage the reader to feel sympathy for the persona. In stanza two the writer remarks that the war photographer is “ordinary pain which weather can dispel”. This use of the word “ordinary” emphasises the extremity of the suffering witnessed by the war photographer by downplaying what we perceive as “suffering”. The writer uses word choice and imagery to portray and emphasise the extremity of misery and suffering the persona has witnessed which effectively encourages the reader to feel sympathy towards the war photographer because he has to witness