Poppies Flashcards
When is the poem set?
In present day, but reaches right back to the beginning of the Poppy Day tradition
How many stanzas are there in Poppies?
4.
The first and last with six lines, the second with eleven and the third with twelve
What are breaks in the middle of lines called?
Caesuras
What does the use of Caesuras represent in the poem?
The inner emotion of a narrator who is trying to remain calm and composed but is breaking with sadness inside
What language is used to describe poppies in the first stanza, but could also be recalling the violence of the son’s death?
‘spams’ ‘disrupting’ ‘blockade’
How is imagery used in the second stanza?
“Sellotape bandaged around my hand”
This image carries echoes of battlefield imagery as well as cleaning cat hairs off the blazer. The contrast between the death in battle and the domestic happiness (the boy has been cuddling his cat) is powerful
What does the door to the house symbolise?
The door to the world
What is the song-bird a metaphor for?
The mother setting her child free
What is the poem about?
The nature of grief
What is the affect of the poem appearing strong and regular?
It shows that the narrator is trying to hold in the emotions that have been stirred up by the sight of poppies
What are examples of similes and metaphors in the poem?
‘gelled blackthorns’
‘released a song bird
‘like a treasure chest’
‘like a wishbone’
Poppies was commissioned by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy to be part of a collection of?
Poems about war
What imagery is consistently used throughout the poem?
Textiles
The poem is written in what form?
Free verse
What technique does the poem use with ‘My stomach busy/making tucks, darts, pleats’?
Personification
What technique does the poem use with‘the world overflowing/like a treasure chest’?
Simile
What kind of imagery is used in this poem?
Domestic and War Imagery
‘gelled blackthorns’ is what?
A biblical reference
‘spasms of paper red’ makes the reader think of what?
An injured body
Jane Weir used her experience of what to help her write this poem?
Being a mother to two teenage boys
What word best represents the son’s excitement and the mother’s fears?
‘intoxicated’
‘individual war graves’ is a reminder of what?
Loss is personal
The image of the ‘single dove’ can be described as what?
Ambiguous
What does ambiguous mean?
open to more than one interpretation; not having one obvious meaning.
What could the dove flying away represent?
The mother’s inner peace being destroyed
What could the simile of ‘the world overflowing like a treasure chest’ represent?
The world is full of opportunity
‘I was brave’ suggests what?
Soldiers are not the only ones who are brave in war
‘Sellotape bandaged around my hand’ suggests what?
The mother is emotionally wounded
What is important to note about the time sequence?
It keeps changing
What might the change in time sequence reflect?
The mother’s change in emotions
