Here you will find detailed summary notes for "Poppies" (2009), including: (1) a short summary of the text, (2) analysis of the language/form/structure, (3) a list of key quotations with some analysis (4) background context. I hope that you find this resource useful.
Story
• A mother describes her son leaving home, seemingly to join the army.
• The poem is about the mother’s emotional reaction to her son leaving – she feels sad, lonely and scared for his
safety.
• She describes helping him smarten his uniform ready to leave. After he leaves, she goes to places that remind her
of him, desperately trying to find any trace of him.
Structure
• The poem is chronological, describing preparations for the son leaving, his departure and then what the mother
does afterwards.
• However, the time frame is ambiguous – memories of the son’s childhood are intermingled with memories of
him leaving, and they’re often not clearly distinguished.
Language
• Senses: The mother’s separation from her on is emphasised by the way she can’t touch or hear him. She touches
other things and listens for his voice “on the wind”, but can’t replace her son.
• War Imagery: Images of war and violence symbolise the son’s new identity and the danger that he’s in.
References to Armistice Sunday and the “war memorial” make the reader question whether he is still alive.
• Domestic Imagery: The images of war and violence are mixed with poignant images of home and family life.
• Loss: The mother acts as if she’s lost her son – she is struggling to move on and accept the changes. There are
hints that the son may even be dead. References to the son starting school allude to s different kind of loss that the
mother has previously experienced.
• Fear: The mother is anxious and fearful for her son’s safety. Her anxiety has a physical effect on her. The poem
focuses on the bravery and restraint of the people left behind when their loved ones go to war.
• Freedom: The poem shows the contrasting perspectives between the loss the mother feels and the freedom and
excitement her son experiences.
Form
• The first person narrative means that the reader gets a strong impression of the mother’s emotions.
• There is no regular rhyme of rhythm, which makes it sound like the narrator’s thoughts and memories.
• Long sentences and enjambment give the impression that the narrator is absorbed in her own thoughts and
memories, whilst caesurae show how she tries to hold her emotions together.
• The poem is a dramatic monologue as well as an elegy (a form of poetry with a serious reflection, typically over
a death), portraying how the mother fears for her son’s life.
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