Poppies Flashcards
“Three days before Armistice Sunday and poppies had already been placed on individual war graves”
Creates a mournful tone and an image of grief and loss. Poppies became an image of remembrance in 1922 as they grew in battlefields; red like blood.
Before you left, I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer.
Asyndetic listing shows that this is a detailed memory + she wants to savour that image of her son
She uses direct address, talking to him in his absence, yearning to speak to him
‘Crimped petals’ imperfections in the poppy and therefore the hope it symbolises is broken to the narrator
‘Spasms of paper red’ also provokes an image of an unnatural, painful, distressing death or injury, highlighting her fears for her Son’s safety
Colour imagery also has connotations of blood death and war but also love and affection to present the closeness of their affection.
Juxtaposition of war imagery with the soft, feminine textile imagery highlight the unnaturalness the mother feels that her child is being forced to war. This is also emphasised with the parallels to sending of a child to school. What’s more the colour yellow has connotations of happiness, hope and youth so therefore this poppy ( a symbol of war) has cut off his childhood
The emphasis on the paper of a poppy also implies vulnerability and weakness. The narrator is afraid her son is fragile. Plus paper is disposable which may subtly hint at the way in which soldiers are treated.
Bilabial plosive alliteration creates an aggressive tone and also mimics the beating of her heart - anxiety
Sellotape bandaged around my hand… smoothed down your shirts upturned collar… steeled the softening of my face
‘Steel’ is a hard metal and her attempt to remain strong in front of her son. However, the sellotape she is using is transparent implying she thinks she is hiding her emotions but you can see through it.
Metaphoric verb ‘bandaged’ shows she is physically hurting from the pain of letting him go and she wants to protect him. Her helplessness to do so is further presented when it brings her solace to do this mundane action
Semantic field of materials
Reflect her delicate emotional state
“I was brave, as I walked with you, to the front door, threw it open, the world overflowing like a treasure chest”
Presents the families of soldiers as brave too
Use of Caesura mimics pauses as the narrator tries to come to terms with what’s about to happen and she is deeply breathing trying to stay calm.
Opening the front door has literal and metaphorical meanings. She literally opens the door but metaphorically the door is a threshold between the safe life the boy has lived and the battlefield
The simile of a world as a treasure chest relates to the overflowing emotions of the mother as well as the opportunity which her Son is experiencing
After you’d gone I went into your bedroom and released a songbird from its cage
The mother has released her son from her clutch and also the emotions that this holds
Later a single dove flew from the pear tree, and this is where it has lead me, skirting the church yard walls
It is ambiguous whether she is there to emphasise with other mothers who have lost their sons to war or if her son has died
It creates a sense of isolation she is alone and has let him go
Dove is a religious image for peace and depicts her subconscious desire to end wars which bring mothers like herself so much suffering
Mothers Journey from the pear tree (a symbol of children and fertility) to the church yard which takes her from thinking about the start of his life to his probable death
The church is a symbol of unity and devotion- she finds solace in religion or prayer, comforting herself with god. She also may want some divine intervention
Skirting- she is anxious and doesn’t want to accept the truth
The hill she is walking up
Represent the difficult emotional journey she has been through.
‘The dove pulled freely against the sky an ornamental stitch”
Peace is only a construct but it doesn’t actually exist
