Summary
Summary "Poppies" explained and analysed
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AQA GCSE poetry "Poppies" by Jane Weir analysed and explained
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Context: Jane Weir, born in 1963, she grew up in Italy and Northern England, with an English mother and an Italian father. She hascontinued to absorb different cultural experiences throughout her life, also living in Northern Ireland during the troubled 1980s.
Her poetry has won several prizes and drawn praise from many other leading poets. She has also written many other kinds of
books. These include several biographies of lesser-known 20th century women writers and artists. The influences of her broad
cultural experiences as well as her knowledge of and interest in other art forms can be seen throughout her work.
When Poppies was written, British soldiers were still dying in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a way of trying to understand the
suffering that deaths caused, the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy asked a number of writers to compose poems, including Jane Weir.
Poppies by Jane Weir REPETITION: emphasises the parallel
SYMBOLISM: The poppy
has symbolic links to between national and personal
violence, war, death and mourning and remembrance
memory creating a Three days before Armistice Sunday
foreboding TONE and poppies had already been placed Personal pronouns ‘I’ and ‘Your’
emphasise the intimacy and
An ominous reminder on individual war graves. Before you left, closeness between speaker and
that war kills individuals
subject
so loss is personal I pinned one onto your lapel, crimped petals,
spasms of paper red, disrupting a blockade Military reference / metaphor
Makes the reader think
suggesting she is ‘blockading’ her
of an injured body of yellow bias binding around your blazer. emotions
Alliteration of ‘b’ exaggerates
Familiar noun 'sellotape' mother fussing over her son
Domestic motherly image - this may be
creates a sense of realism Sellotape bandaged around my hand, the last time she can do this for her son
I rounded up as many white cat hairs
Another image of being Sibilance emphasises she is trying to be
wounded - she is as I could, smoothed down your shirt's brave and not show emotion
emotionally wounded and
he might be wounded in upturned collar, steeled the softening
An aside, personal anecdote, the
war.
of my face. I wanted to graze my nose reference to the sense of touch shows
how the mother longs for the closeness
Caesura to reflect the across the tip of your nose, play at she had with her son when he was small
mother's attempt to stay
and emphasises the distance between
in control - she doesn't being Eskimos like we did when
them now.
want to get carried away
you were little. I resisted the impulse Reference to military hair style requirement
by her emotions
and how aggressive it makes him appear to
to run my fingers through the gelled
her, reminding us of her son’s new role in
Power of three shows the
blackthorns of your hair. All my words which she has no part 'Blackthorns' alludes
mother is overwhelmed with
to Jesus who wore a crown of thorns when
emotion & can't find her flattened, rolled, turned into felt, he was crucified, this hints at the sacrifice
words – she's proud of him 'felt' suggests she speaks softly and her son may make
but doesn’t want to let go aligns her with domesticity
slowly melting. I was brave, as I walked The mother subverting her bravery
Her composure briefly subverts the idea that only those who go
disappears with the with you, to the front door, threw
to war are brave
melting of her words
it open, the world overflowing
Symbolic, idea of throwing the door open and Verb 'threw' showing sudden movement
setting her son free. The door represents her suggests breaking a boundary
acceptance of his choice.
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