Poppies Flashcards
What is the context of poppies
Jane weir was born in 1963 and lived in Northern Ireland during the troubles in the 1980s
She has two sons which may have influenced her desire to explore what caused young boys to go to war and fight
What is the symbolism of poppies
Poppies grew in battlefields and became a symbol of rememberence in 1921
Weir used these symbols to establish from the outset that the poem is an act of rememberence
What is the structure of poppies
Free verse-there is no rhyme scheme or meter as well as a lot of variety in stanza length. Shows that these are the speakers uncensored thoughts through which she desperately tries to make sense of the situation
Also creates the impressions of the poem being an outpouring of emotion or a stream of consciousness which is common in modern poetry.
Chaotic structure reflect the narrators lack of control over her emotions as well as the events she’s endured
“Graze my nose across the tip of your nose”
Maternal affection is juxtaposed against the injury like connotation of “graze”
Painful undertones
“Rolled turned into felt- slowly melting”
The use of enjambement gives the sentence a more fragmented feeling- alludes to the narrator having to grasp at incomplete memories
It breaks the structure of the poem to correspond with the mother emotionally breaking
Hints of the mother suffering are heard throughout the poem as she is repeatedly assaulted by painful memories
What are the similarities and differences between kamakazi and poppies
The psychological effects of war is seen in both poems. Weir shows how grief leads the narrator to processing blissful domestic memories
Whereas garland recounts the day her father embarked at sunrise
Both poems focused on the uncomventiopnal victims of war not those who went into battle themselves
