Poppies by Jane Weir

Part of the AQA Poetry Anthology, Power and Conflict

Analyse the poem “Poppies” by Jane Weir to understand the use of form, structure and poetic devices and how these relate to the underlying themes within the poem.

Where to start

Analysing poetry can be a little daunting at first, and you may need to read it a few times before you understand what the poet is trying to say.  Don’t worry though, you will soon get used to it and start to understand how to approach analysing a poem.

It’s important that you use the version of the poem from your anthology when doing your analysis.  The layout of some poems can differ from publication to publication (particularly over the internet) –  perhaps some words will have been changed or the stanzas may be set out differently.  This can affect the analysis.  So, always work from the version set out in your anthology as this is how the poem will be laid out in your exam.

When analysing the poem try to do a little research on the poet themselves.  It is not strictly necessary but understanding a little about them and their background can provide some helpful context to the poem which can be useful in your analysis.

About the poet - Jane Weir

  • Born in 1963 in Manchester she is anglo-Italian, with an English mother and an Italian father.
  • Jane lived in Belfast during The Troubles and this exposed her to the conflicts and political tension surrounding them.
  • Jane is also a textile designer, and this often influences the vocabulary she uses in her poems.
  • Weir’s poems often cover explore several themes, incuding social and political issues, memory and loss and the experiences of women.
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Download a clean version of the poem ‘Poppies’ by Jane Weir using the button opposite.  Use this to mark up your own notes from the analysis below.

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Background to the poem

Image by h kama from Pixabay
Image by h kama from Pixabay
  • Published in 2009, the poem was part of a collection commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy called “Exit Wounds”.
  • It focused on impacts of modern wars, including Iraq and Afghanistan. 
  • Jane Weir wanted to explore the stories of women of war, especially mothers of soliders who experience war in a very different way.
  • Weir was inspired by Susan Owen, mother to Wilfred Owens who wrote “Exposure”.

Set around Armistice Sunday, it links the symbolic poppies seen on war graves, worn on lapels and laid as wreaths to memory, sacrifice and mourning.

What is the poem about?

  • The poem tells of a mothers experience of her son going off to war. This is quite unusual as most poems about war and conflict are written from the male perspective.
  • It reflects on the moment the son leaves, when she straightened his collar, removed cat hair from his uniform. Showing the tender, every-day actions that may never be experienced again.
  • The poem is not clear on whether the son returns from war, though it is written with an overarching tone of grief implying he hasn’t.
  • Memories are a key concept throughout the poem as Weir reflects on key moments between the mother and son.
  • There is a lot of emotion throughout the poem, though it is indirect, as though she is trying to be stoic and brave.

Image by Patty Jansen from Pixabay

So now we know that the poem is about let’s analyse how Weir uses poetic devices.

Form and Structure

  • The poem is written as a monologue, from a mothers perspective. It is written in free-verse, meaning there is no rhyme scheme or pentameter.
  • It has four stanzas. The first and last have 6 lines each. The middle two have 12 lines.
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Image by Anja from Pixabay

  • The stanzas follow events in the life of the mother and son.  The first looks back at remembrance day, which triggers the memories. The second reflects on the day she sent him off to war. The third focuses on the emptiness that his absence has created. The final stanza comes back to a war memorial, where it all began. This symbolises the cyclical grief that the mother is experiencing.
  •  The shorter first and last stanzas possibly imply these are events/memories the mother does not want to linger on.
  • The longer two middle paragraphs indicate where the mother tends to focus; specific memories of her son that she cherishes, trying to maintain his presence.
  • There is a lot of enjambment throughout the poem – where sentences flow of lines, even stanzas. This is representative of how the mother would speak, giving it a natural tone and enabling the reader to empathise with the mother.

Use of language

  • Poppies are referenced early in the poem. These are symbolic of war and death. This and the mention of Armistice Sunday in the first line gives the poem a foreboding, sad tone.
  • There is much use of pronouns, “I” and “your” which makes the poem feel very personal.
  • When talking about brushing cat hairs from his uniform, the poem refers to “Sellotape bandaged around my hand”. Sellotape is a very normal, every-day, innocent item. Whereas ‘bandaged” implies injury or harm. This juxtaposition shows how war has impacted every facet of the mothers life.
  • Another example of this is the phrase, “steeled the softening”. There is sibilance in this line, but the juxtapostion of steel and softening again shows how every part of the mothers life has changed.
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Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

  • The metaphor ‘blackthorns of your hair’ shows how the short, military cut has changed how her son appears.
  • “All my words| flattened, rolled and turned into felt”. The mother is tongue-tied and unable to express how she feels.
  • “The world overflowing like a treasure chest.” This line shows how attractive the world is to her son and the fact that she ‘threw it open’ shows she accepts his choice to go.
  • There are many textile references within the poem, “tucks, darts, pleats, crimped”, etc. These bring in Weirs experience as a textile designer and give a physical impression of the emotional pain the mother is feeling.
  • “This is where it has led me”, in the third stanza is not only referencing the location she is in, but also the situation. Linked with the ‘church yard walls” it implies sadness, pain and grief.

Themes and comparisons

If you’re presented with this poem in the exam you will be asked to compare it to one of the other poems from the anthology in some way. You may also decide to use it as the comparison poem.  To do this you need to think about the themes that are presented in the poem and which other poems in the anthology have similar themes.  We’ve summarised these briefly below.

Effects of Conflict

Rather than focussing on the war and battles itself, the poem looks at it from those that it leaves behind.

Compare to:

  1.  Charge of the Light Brigade
  2. Exposure
  3. Bayonet Charge
  4. Remains
  5. War Photographer
  6. Kamikaze

Individual Experiences

The poem is slightly different in that it shows the effect of conflict from a different perspective. 

Compare to:

  1.  Charge of the Light Brigade
  2. Exposure
  3. Bayonet Charge
  4. Remains
  5. War Photographer
  6. Kamikaze

Loss and Absence

The grief the mother feels at the loss of her son is evident throughout the poem.

Compare to:

  1.  London
  2. Exposure
  3. The Emigree
  4. Kamikaze

What next?

We hope you’ve found this analysis useful, but please remember that we all interpret things differently.  Just because we’ve read it one way, does not that it can not have an alternative meaning.  Remember that when you’re reading it through – you could pick up on something totally different and that’s fine.  There is no right or wrong interpretation of a poem – as long as you can analyse and justify why the poem makes you feel a certain way then there are marks to be had in an exam.

We have prepared a PDF summary sheet containing all of the information on this page which you may find useful when revising. Use this when reading the poem again and make your own notes and highlights. You can download it by clicking on the link below.

Image by S K from Pixabay

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Other Resources

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