Poem - Poppies Flashcards
Poppies explores the view of conflict, from the point of view of
women
Weir had two teenage boys. Why did she say that she wrote this poem?
I tried to put across how I might feel if they were fighting in a war zone.
Who was Weir thinking of as she wrote Poppies?
I was subliminally thinking of Susan Owen…
How does the mother describe her sons thoughts of bravery and heroism?
Intoxicated
The mother describes visits to the churchyard and war memorial. What does this imply?
It implies that her son is dead
Sight, sound and touch can be seen often, for example
Spasms of paper red
This words in the first verse hint at how her son died
“Spasms”, “disrupting” and “blockade”
The song-bird freed from its caged is a metaphor for
The mother setting the child free
Poppies looks rigid and structure at first glance because
The first and last stanzas are 6 lines, stanza 2 is 11 and stanza 3 is 12. 6 11 12 6
This structural technique reflects the mother herself. She seems strong and stoic - for her son. Yet beneath this façade she is frightened, anxious and emotionally fragile.
More than half the lines have Caesurae
These images of death and mourning create a sombre and solemn mood as the mother grieves for her lost son.
‘Armistice Sunday’, ‘poppies’ and ‘war graves’
Most war poetry is told from the male perspective, often the soldier and his experiences in battle, however the difference with Poppies is that…
the poem is narrated by a woman who isn’t directly involved in conflict
When she speaks in the present tense…
we see her as fragile and vulnerable.
