Poppies

Question 1

memory - perhaps of things that aren’t there any more

Answer 1

Past tense: “Three days before Armistice Sunday…”

Question 2

memory - perhaps of things that aren’t there any more

Answer 2

Contrast with now: “there’s no way back at all / but my city comes to me…”

Question 3

Intensely physical responses to the situation - both the present and the remembered past

Answer 3

Of controlling one’s feelings: “steeled the softening of my face”

Question 4

Which makes an experience that could befall anyone become specific to the speakers in these poems

Answer 4

Uncertain outcome: “I listened hoping to hear / your playground voice catching on the wind.”