Poppies - Jane Weir

Poppies - Jane Weir

1. Poetic Techniques

   • Alliteration
     • 'steeled the softening on my face'
       • Tough exterior not showing emotions
         • Prepared herself
   • Simile
     • 'the world overflowing like a treasure chest'
       • Excited to explore the world
     • 'like a wishbone'
       • Wishing he will return

2. Language

   • Imagery
     • References to textiles
       • 'crimped petals'
         • Zigzag material
       • 'All my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt slowly melting'
         • Felt-making representing emotion/grief when it enters the body
           • The process of grieving
             • The layers of emotion
         • Enjambment
           • Fluid, flow
             • Representation of memories
       • 'my stomach busy making tucks, darts, pleats'
         • Seamstress vocabulary
         • Nervous - waiting for news
       • 'an ornamental stitch'
         • Sewing imagery
           • Decorative
     • 'threw it open'
       • Sudden movement suggests breaking a boundary
     • Possible army or school link
       • 'yellow binding around your blazer'
         • School uniform? Army uniform?
           • Suggestion that the boy is young
       • 'I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind'
         • Links leaving for army with leaving school
     • 'released a song bird from its cage'
       • Symbolic of freedom
         • Links with letting her son go
     • 'A split second and you were away, intoxicated'
       • Left quickly
       • Drunk with excitement
   • 'play at being Eskimos like we did we did when you were little'
     • Only use of 'we'
       • Everywhere else has a very separate use of 'I' and 'You'
     • Wants him to be young again

3. Comparision

   • Futility
     • Looks at the emotional impact of war

4. Title

   • Named after the poppy tradition
     • Connection to war

5. Structure and Form

   • Four stanzas
   • First person

6. Subject and Themes

   • Set just before Armistice Sunday (remembrance day)
   • The poem is about the nature of grief