English Literature: Poems - Poppies

“poppies”

• a dramatic monologue

• foreshadows as a symbol for her sons death

“all my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt”

• metaphor

• rule of three

• indicates that the grief of losing your son/child leaves you speechless

“i listened, hoping to hear / your playground voice catching in the wind”

• caesura

• the caesura shows how her voice faulters as she realised what she has to face a future without

“on reaching the top of the hill i traced the inscriptions on the war memorial, leaned against it like a wishbone”

• metaphor and simile

• climbing the hill is a metaphor of her struggle to overcome how grief stricken she is for sending her son off to war and losing him

“smoothed down your shirts upturned collar” and “play at being eskimos”

• maternal imagery

• symbolic of the bond and relationship and mother and their child share

• trying to show how war doesnt only affect soldiers it affects their families too

“released a song bird from its cage”

• metaphor

• could reflect her acknowledging and trying to come to terms with her sons desire for freedom and independance

• could mean she is finally freeing her emotions as she has come to terms with what has happened to her son

“later a single dove flew from a pear tree”

• metaphor

• showing how she is at peace with the fact that her son is safer now than he was in the dangers of conflict, even though he is a victim of conflict

• dove = peace which could show how her son is now at peace

“ornamental stitch”

• metaphor

• using it as a symbol ofr something coming loose

• shows how she is falling apart with her son and can’t be fixed

• does this to show how losing the bond that is that of a mother and her child is the most heartbreaking thing to endure, especially at the expense of a war

how does remains link to poppies

• “his bloody life in my bloody hands” - shows the reality of the effects war has on a persons mind - links to how the mother is overcome with guilt for allowing her son to risk his life

• “sleep” “dream” - shows how the memories haunt you - link to the memories of the mothers son haunt her and making her feel distraught over losing the most important thing to her

• “i see….i see” - links to how he feels he is fully responsible as if it only replays in his head, links to how the mother feels repsonisble for allowing her son to endanger himself when she should have been protecting him from propaganda

how does war photographer link to poppies

• “half-formed ghost” - suggests the the memories of seeing what people lose in war are haunting him as he realises society sit back and do nothing because we don’t understand the horrors of war

• “blood-stained” - could suggests he feels the guilt of standing back and doing nothing is going to be left on him for the rest of his life as he realises the struggles millions of people go through - link to how the mother feels guilt for letting her son go

• “all flesh is grass” - link to the “dove” - both poems give religious imagery as they feel they need to be saved by god from letting this happen in our world without doing anything to stop it