Poppies by Jane weir

• “All my Words flattened, rolled, turned into felt”

  • The enjambement and caesuras in between help to slow the pace- shows she is mentalky breaking down
  • war imagery- those who are not directly involved in battle experience the effects of it.
• “Spasm of paper red, disrupting a blocade of yellow bias”

  • “Blockade”- military language
  • “red” can symbolise her live for her son
  • The love she has for her son “disrupts” the thoughts of war in her mind
  • Motherly love overpowers the effects of war, whatever happens her love will never waver.
  • ”red” could also be morbidly alluding to blood and death, suggesting that she cannot get the thoughts of her son’s death out of her mind.
• “Sellotape Bandaged around my hand“

  • “Sellotape” is not effective at treating wounds, This could suggest that textiles “tucks” “darts” “pleats” will never shroud the memories of her dead son.
  • No matter how much she tries to move on or heal, nothing will extinguish the pain she feels. -she feels the pain that her son felt- unbreakable bond between a mother and her son.
• “Tucks, darts, pleats, reinforcements“

  • The Consonance creates an image of bullets or the sound of artillery
  • effective in emphasising the effects of war on people who aren’t directly in war
  • She is incessantly bombarded by the memories of war, it terrorises her like artillery terrorises soldiers- effects of war on mothers
• Dove: “A dove flew in“

  • Symbol of peace and divinity showing she she wants to move on with her life
  • symbol of mourning to show the can never truly move on