Poppies Flashcards
There is strong feelings of what apparent throughout the poem?
Sadness.
Anger.
What time of war poem is it?
Contemporary war poem.
Not about a specific conflict/war.
What is the poem about?
A mothers experience of loss and pain.
Different perspective of war.
What language techniques are evident throughout the poem?
Imagery.
Alliteration.
Simile.
What structure techniques are evident throughout the poem?
1st person narration.
No rhyme.
Enjambment.
What type of imagery is there?
Clothing.
Vulnerability.
Everyday objects.
The poem focuses on textiles like…
Touch.
Richly textured poem.
No rhyme suggests what?
Shows inability to control emotions and thoughts.
Initially the poem appears to be…
clearly structured, but caesuras creates a sense that the narrator is not entirely calm.
‘Three days before Armistice Sunday’…
Clear sense of time.
Universal.
Link to remembrance day.
‘Before you left’…
Hope that he is alive, directly addressing him.
‘Spasms’…
Harsh and violent.
‘Blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer’…
Alliteration.
Bold brave textures are described foreshadowing death.
‘Sellotape bandaged around my hand’…
Motherly image.
Contrasts with the images of injuries on the battlefield.
‘Smoothed down your shirt’s upturned collar’…
Emphasises physical closeness between mother/son.
‘Steeled the softening of my face’…
Alliteration highlights mothers bravery ability to stay strong for son.
‘Play at being Eskimos like we did when you were little’…
Sentimental images of childhood make poem more poignant.
‘All my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt’…
Like Belfast Confetti, communication can fail us in time of conflict.
‘Slowly melting’…
Already a sense of loss.
‘I was brave’…
Sense of bereavement.
Preparing for loss.
‘Threw it open, the world overflowing like a treasure chest’…
Simile.
Open door to rest of the world.
‘After you’d gone’…
Deliberately ambiguous.
‘Gone’ to war or death.
‘Released a song bird from its cage’…
Metaphor.
Letting her son be free.
‘And this is where it has lead me’…
Brings narrator to the present time tense.
‘A winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves’…
Images of vulnerability, links back to how she helped him with his military uniform and clothing as a child.
‘On reaching the top of the hill’…
Literal hill to war memorial but metaphorically describes her journey.
‘Wishbone’…
Simile to highlight fragile and femur.
‘The dove pulled freely against the sky’…
Symbolically love, death, pain.
‘I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind’…
Speaks to her son again.
Closing lines = extreme sadness.
The mother i suspended between what?
Past and present.
