Poppies Flashcards
“i pinned one to your lapel, crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer.”
“i pinned” the use of the personal pronoun and the verb is a subtle way of showing the love the mother had for her son. She does little things for him, which then amplifies the despair presented in the poem by the end. The innocence in her love for him was tainted by the cruel reality of war.
“spasms” and “red”
- blood bodies
- foreshadowing death
“blockade”
- blocking emotion, stopping herself from being upset
- trying her best to be happy for son
- millitant language- the war has disrupted their connection
“sellotape bandaged around my hand.”
“bandaged”- metaphor
- refers to the emotional damage from her son leaving
- doesn’t want her son to know how she is feeling so she is covering it up
ALTERNATIVELY
-the verb “bandaged” alludes to what may happen to her son
“I resisted the impulse to run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair.”
“resisted”
-the mother is trying to repress her feelings
“blackthorns” is an allusion
- Jesus wore a crown of blackthorns in the Bible
- reflects how the mother is sacrificing her son for the greater good
- signifies that she may feel that war is necessary
“All my words/flattened, rolled, turned into felt//slowly melting.”
her “words” of support are disappearing as she is becoming less able to repress her emotions
the asyndeton emphasises how much her emotions are being manipulated
-she doesn’t know whether to feel proud of fearful or miserable
“the world overflowing like a treasure chest”
similie
“treasure chest” suggests opportunity in her son’s world
-“overflowing” shows the the quantity of opportunites
-this is juxtaposed with the mother seeing her son as someone who is going to be sacrificed
-she is trying her best to be positive for him
“After you’d gone I went into your bedroom,/released a song bird from its cage.”
“song bird”
she is crying
- in despair
-misses her son desperately
“cage”
- she is protecting her son from the reality of her emotions
- she finally is alone and can express them
“Later a single dove flew from the pear tree.”
“dove”
represents peace and mourning
-in Christianity, the pear tree is a symbol of the virgin mother and her son
-the dove leaving symbolises the desolation of that bond
-she will not see her son again
“Later a single dove flew from the pear tree.”
“dove”
represents peace and mourning
-in Christianity, the pear tree is a symbol of the virgin mother and her son
-the dove leaving symbolises the desolation of that bond
-she will not see her son again
