Poppies - JohmMcCrae ✔ Flashcards
Form in poppies?
Takes the form of a dramatic monologue - the speaker uses second person narrative to directly address their son - form serves to focus the listener on the mother
Significance of the poem being in free verse?
There is no rhyme scheme or meter as well as a lot of variety in stanza length - shows that these are the speakers uncensored thoughts, through which she desperately tries to make sense of the situation - also creates the impression of the poem being an outpouring of emotion or a stream of consciousness and the chaotic structure reflects the narrators lack of control over her emotions as well as the events she has endured
Significance with the use of enjambment?
Use of enjambment is seen in ‘rolled, turned into felt // slowly melting” which gives the sentence a fragmented feeling - alludes to the narrator having to grasp at incomplete memories
How does weir use violent military metaphors for an effect?
“Without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves” lack of protection from the cold shows how violence has left a mark on all parts of her everyday life
Significance of “graze my nose across the tip of your nose”
A phrase in which the maternal affection is juxtaposed against the injury like connotations of ‘graze’ and throughout the poem which shows how war prevents people from having a normal domestic life
How does weir explore the emotional suffering more as opposed to the physical pain?
‘I was brave’ which opposes conventional ideas of bravery associated with fighting and risk taking - in poppies the narrator is acting bravely by carrying on with her daily life despite what she is suffering
How is the idea of suffering presented in the poem?
Use of enjambment in ‘all my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt// slowly melting’ breaks the structure of the poem to correspond with the mother emotionally breaking - hints of the mothers suffering are heard throughout the poem as she is repeatedly assaulted by painful memories
Significance of “I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind”
The poem ends with sad metaphor which shows their is no end to the mothers pain - sense it is never ending
Significance of “I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind”
The poem ends with sad metaphor which shows their is no end to the mothers pain - sense it is never ending
Significance of “the world overflowing like a treasure chest”
Metaphor / simile creates an image there being an outpouring of emotion by the narrator - also suggest the young man had a whole future and a lot of possibilities
Importance of “lapel, crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias binding around your blazer’
The use of asyndetic listing shows how detailed the memory is to the narrator - show sheds still holding onto memories and it is if time slows down here
