Poppies by Jane Weir

Question 1

Jane Weir

Answer 1

Lived in Ireland during the troubled 1980s. Has 2 sons (perhaps made her explore why young boys go to war and fight). Textile designer, hence the related imagery.

Question 2

Poem context

Answer 2

Part of a collection called ‘Exit Wounds’. Poppies that grew in battlefields, and Armistice Sunday both represent WW2, setting a tone of remembrance from the onset of poem.

Question 3

Language - blending domestic with conflict

Answer 3

She leaves the house “without a winter coat or reinforcements of scarf, gloves”. Interweaves domestic imagery + textile imagery in parallel with violent military metaphors. Lack of protection from cold shows how violence has left a mark on all parts of her life. She also feels she needs reinforcements to see her son’s memorial (hard to accept reality).

Question 4

Language - maternal affection vs injury

Answer 4

She wanted to “graze my nose across the tip of your nose”. A phrase in which maternal affection is juxtaposed to the injury-like connotations of “graze”. She shows how war prevents people from having a normal life

Question 5

Language - unconventional bravery

Answer 5

“I was brave”, “I resisted the impulse to run my fingers through the gelled blackthorns of your hair”. She is showing how she feels that she is enduring emotional suffering as opposed to the physical pain of a soldier, but presents it like it’s equally as hard, shown through her declaration of “I was brave”. Religious reference of “gelled blackthorns” mimics Christ’s crown of thorns before being crucified: her son was a sacrifice.

Question 6

More language features

Answer 6

Simile: “the world overflowing like a treasure chest” - as if there’s an outpour of emotion. She’s also opening the chest for him, and bravely letting him go.
Metaphor: “I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind” - sad, and poignant ending shows a mother’s memories of her son as a child (he’ll always be a child to her)
“Steeled the softening of my face” - sibilance creates a sense of softness and fragility. Despite trying to ‘steel’ her face, it doesn’t really work (elongated ‘ee’ creates a sense of softness).

Question 7

General form

Answer 7

Dramatic monologue, second person narrative to directly address the son but he never replies: sense of death and loss.

Question 8

Form - chaotic free verse

Answer 8

No rhyme or metre, variation of stanza length, showing her uncensored thoughts as she makes sense of the situation. Represents an outpouring of emotion. Chaotic structure shows her lack of control, the chaos of war reaches much further than just the battlefield.

Question 9

Structure - asyndetic listing

Answer 9

“Lapel, crimped petals, spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade of yellow bias”. Shows the precision and vividness of her memory (she treasures it). Colour imagery makes it more vivid. War imagery, red represents blood, yellow is almost a warning.

Question 10

Structure - enjambement

Answer 10

“Rolled, turned into felt / slowly melting”. Gives the sentence a fragmented feeling, like she is broken, and she is also having to grasp at incomplete memories.

Question 11

Opening - tone of remembrance

Answer 11

Tone of remembrance set from start (at a memorial service), to show that she and her son, who made the ultimate sacrifice, are victims of war. By showing son participating then dying at war, the cyclic, endless nature of war is shown.

Question 12

Poem summary

Answer 12

Places a poppy on son’s blazer, recounts memories, she stops her emotions as he leaves the house. Releases his pet songbird, then later, follows a dove to the war memorial and wishes she could hear her son’s voice.

Question 13

Semantic field + tone

Answer 13

Textile and domestic imagery runs alongside war imagery. “tucks”, “pleats”, “felt”, “rolled” vs “blockade”, “reinforcements”, “war graves”, “memorial”. Direct and conversational tone, except the poem betrays the persona’s anxiety and grief through heavy enjambement of opening lines (as if she’s rushing; this contrasts with the matter of fact tone).

Question 14

Comparisons, themes

Answer 14

War Photographer - effects of war on those who aren’t soldiers, memories, conflict.
Kamikaze - effects of war on those who aren’t soldiers, memories, parenthood, memories
The Emigree - effects of war on those who aren’t soldiers, destruction of war, loss (of child vs homeland).