Poppies Flashcards
Three days before Armistice Sunday
and poppies had already been placed
- This is a personal display of grief.
- Symbolism The poppy has symbolic links to violence, death and memory. It is quite foreboding in this poem.
I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,
Pronouns “I” and “Your” used to emphasises the intimacy and closely of the speaker and subject.
spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade
of yellow bias binding around your blazer.
- Blockade Military reference to blocking, perhaps of emotion or perhaps between her and her son.
- “spasms” lack of control she feels over protecting her son from pain and suffering.
- She performing a domestic action, but using military terms which suggests the thought of conflict is overwhelming her.
- Alliteration also used with bias, binding, blunder emphasise bustle, mothering over her son.
- “bias binding” fits with the sewing semantic field, they are there to stop things fraying so maybe she’s trying to remind herself not to fall apart while he’s there.
- The fact it’s a blazer makes it sound like a school age suggesting she still feels a responsibility to care for him.
Sellotape bandaged around my hand,
Familiar noun/military metaphor The reference to sellotape is quite a familiar homely image, ‘bandaged’ can be used to imply wound or injury/harm.
upturned collar, steeled the softening
- Sibilance, The words ‘steeled, shirt, softening’ etc. gives a calm tone to the scene described in the poem.
- She’s trying not to cry as she doesn’t want him to feel as though he’s hurting her by wanting to be free.
across the tip of your nose, play at
Aside, the personal anecdote creates a sense of intimacy and human realism in the speakers voice. Juxtaposed with the military side of her son.
blackthorns of your hair. All my words
- Metaphor, a reference to the shortened hair stubble required in the military and how aggressive it makes her son appear to her.
- Touch is important because she’s never going to be able to do it again.
flattened, rolled, turned into felt,
- Power of three, reflects the way the mother is tongue tied and doesn’t know what to say, she is proud of her son but also doesn’t want him to go.
- This being at the end of a stanza suggest the mother is breaking emotionally as there is a break in the structure.
with you, to the front door, threw
- Symbolic, idea of throwing the door open and setting her son free. The door represents her own acceptance of his choice.
- She comes with him all the way to the door determined not to have to let go of him until the very last moment.
like a treasure chest. A split second
- The enjambment at the end of the line suggests it happens quickly.
- Simile, suggests how attractive the world appears to her son and also her aspiration for him to have opportunities.
released a song bird from its cage.
- Metaphor, connotes that he is like a beautiful caged creature and needs to be set free. Implies that she understands this includes free to make mistakes and be harmed.
- It could also suggest her letting all her emotions free now he’s not there to see her cry.
and this is where it has led me,
Vague Pronoun, contains double meaning, this as in the location but also the situation, suggests that ‘this’ is her sons death, she cannot bear to speak the words. Implies pain.
making tucks, darts, pleats, hat-less, without
a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves.
- Listing, implies the awkward feeling of the mother, trying to distract herself from grief. However she’s got nothing to show for all of it, could imply that she just can’t escape the grief in any way.
- “reinforcements” suggests she feels alone and is trying to find comfort elsewhere.
On reaching the top of the hill I traced
Physical senses, implies the intimacy between mother and son, connotes the tactile hypersensitivity and jumbled emotions.
an ornamental stitch. I listened, hoping to hear
Caesura, breaking down the verses, implies the choking back tears.