Poppies - Jane Weir

Attachments:

• The Yellow Palm - Robert Minhinnick
• Flag - John Agard
• Belfast Confetti - Ciaran Carson
• Futility - Wilfred Owen
• next to of course god america i - E.E.Cummings
• Mametz Wood - Owen Sheers
• Extract from Out of the Blue - Simon Armitage

1. Poetic Techniques
   1. Alliteration
      1. 'steeled the softening on my face'
         1. Tough exterior not showing emotions
            1. Prepared herself
   2. Simile
      1. 'the world overflowing like a treasure chest'
         1. Excited to explore the world
      2. 'like a wishbone'
         1. Wishing he will return
2. Language
   1. Imagery
      1. References to textiles
         1. 'crimped petals'
            1. Zigzag material
         2. 'All my words flattened, rolled, turned into felt slowly melting'
            1. Felt-making representing emotion/grief when it enters the body
               1. The process of grieving
                  1. The layers of emotion
            2. Enjambment
               1. Fluid, flow
                  1. Representation of memories
         3. 'my stomach busy making tucks, darts, pleats'
            1. Seamstress vocabulary
            2. Nervous - waiting for news
         4. 'an ornamental stitch'
            1. Sewing imagery
               1. Decorative
      2. 'threw it open'
         1. Sudden movement suggests breaking a boundary
      3. Possible army or school link
         1. 'yellow binding around your blazer'
            1. School uniform? Army uniform?
               1. Suggestion that the boy is young
         2. 'I listened, hoping to hear your playground voice catching on the wind'
            1. Links leaving for army with leaving school
      4. 'released a song bird from its cage'
         1. Symbolic of freedom
            1. Links with letting her son go
      5. 'A split second and you were away, intoxicated'
         1. Left quickly
         2. Drunk with excitement
   2. 'play at being Eskimos like we did we did when you were little'
      1. Only use of 'we'
         1. Everywhere else has a very separate use of 'I' and 'You'
      2. Wants him to be young again
3. Comparision
   1. Futility
      1. Looks at the emotional impact of war
4. Title
   1. Named after the poppy tradition
      1. Connection to war
5. Structure and Form
   1. Four stanzas
   2. First person
6. Subject and Themes
   1. Set just before Armistice Sunday (remembrance day)
   2. The poem is about the nature of grief