poppies x remains

poppies and remains writers purpose

Armitage - exposes psychological damage inflicted upon soldiers by war

→ explores the guilt of those trained to kill

→ exposes the brutal violence and devastating effects, even after war

Wier - shows emotional/psychological impact of war on those at home

→ from Mother’s perspective, portrays her struggling with feelings to conceal her fears form her son

→ shows sacrifice civilians must make in war (emotional cost), he may not survive

psychological effects of war- poppies

"sellotape bandaged around my hand": JUXTAPOSING images of war/pain w domestic images:

→ the war intruding on their lives - shows her fear of losing her son

→ shows her emotional pain of losing her son, knows he may not return

→image of war CONTRASTS the care/love she shows her son

psychological effects of war- remains

“the drink and drugs won’t flush him out”: inability to escape trauma and guilt he experiences after the shooting, even while trying to numb his feelings with alcohol and drugs

→ shows that he turns to addiction to try and numb the pain

→ he can’t escape the psychological impact of taking the looter’s life

“I blink and he bursts again”: It won’t leave his mind

→ use of enjambment = unable to put an end to this experience - it will haunt him forever

→ never-ending - he can’t separate past from present

→ ‘bursts’ = gruesome image, shows the reality of war + the traumatic image

memory- poppies

“leaned against it like a wishbone”: physical and emotional connection to the war memorial, leaning against it as if trying to hold onto the past and the memory of her son

→ reflects her wish for her son to be home

→ shows her fragility/vulnerability, she might break (like a wishbone)

→ tragic image of grief - she is a victim of war too

“I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice”: desperate hope to still hear her son's voice

→ shows the power of memory even in his absence

→ ‘playground’ links with the mother seeing her son as her child, too young to go to war, too young to sacrifice

memory- remains

“probably armed, possibly not”: repetition shows how the memory HAUNTS HIM, the thought keeps repeating itself

→ haunted by guilt, shows his questioning of his actions, that he can’t rationalise taking the looter’s life like he was trained to do

“sort of inside out… tosses his guts back into his body”: graphic and brutal imagery of the body

→ informal lang makes it more brutal

→ description: shows the cause of soldiers trauma - he did this, explains why it’s stuck in his mind

→ deliberately SHOCKS the reader - violent + disturbing shows reality of war

ending of poppies

“wishbone”: final image of grief

contrast to remains, guilt / grief

→ shows the effects of war on families at home, the fear and grief war forces onto them

→ exposes the realities of war on civilians

ending of remains

“his bloody life in my bloody hands”: emphasises intense guilt of soldier

→ repetition of bloody = weight to feelings of guilt

→ ‘bloody’ shows how he can’t remove the graphic images of the body from his mind, he can’t remove the guilt

→final image of the poem, showing how his guilt is never-ending