Compare Poppies and Remains: Grade 9 Thesis & Quotes (AQA)

Quick Comparison Grid (The “Ninja Cheat Sheet”)

1. The Nature of the Burden: Grief vs Guilt

Poppies:

• The burden is maternal grief. The mother is haunted by the absence of her son. She uses domestic rituals (pinning a poppy, crimping hair) to try and maintain a physical connection to him.
• The sensory imagery (“tucks, darts, pleats”) shows how she tries to “stitch” her life back together, but the “war graves” are always in the background of her mind.
• Elite Link: Her grief is a form of “slow” trauma—it is the quiet, daily endurance of a life that has been “overflowing like a treasure chest” but is now empty.

Remains:

• The burden is soldier’s guilt. The speaker is haunted by the presence of the man he killed. The looter is “dug in behind enemy lines” inside his own head.
• The visceral imagery (“guts,” “blood-shadow”) shows that he cannot sanitize the memory. It is raw and physical, unlike the mother’s soft, textile-based memories.
• Elite Link: His guilt is a form of “intrusive” trauma—it “blinks” into his mind the moment he closes his eyes, showing that he is a prisoner of his own actions.

Explore: Both poets show that war creates permanent mental stains, but while the mother is haunted by love and loss, the soldier is haunted by violence and responsibility.

2. Domesticity vs The Battlefield: Home as a Haunted Space

Poppies:

• The home is a place where war and childhood collide. The mother remembers “sellotape” and “cat hairs” alongside “war graves.”
• She “reaches the top of the hill” to look for him, showing that her domestic world has been permanently altered by the distant battlefield.
• Elite Link: The domestic setting emphasizes the “private” cost of war that is often ignored by official “remembrance” ceremonies.

Remains:

• The home is no longer a sanctuary. The soldier is “home on leave,” but the war has followed him back. “Sleep” and “dream” are no longer safe spaces.
• He tries to use “drink and the drugs” to flush out the memory, but the “remains” of the looter stay in his “bloody hands.”
• Elite Link: The intrusion of the battlefield into the domestic space shows that for the soldier, the war never truly ends; it just changes location.

Explore: Both poems show that war destroys the boundary between home and conflict, leaving the survivors in a state of permanent displacement.

3. Structure: Fragmented Memory vs The Confessional

Poppies:

• The free verse and lack of regular rhyme mirror the mother’s disordered, emotional state.
• The shifting timeframes (moving from the son leaving to her standing at the memorial) reflect how grief makes time feel non-linear.
• Elite Link: The poem ends on a “wishbone,” a symbol of fragile hope and unresolved longing, leaving the reader in the same state of suspension as the mother.

Remains:

• The conversational, anecdotal opening (“On another occasion”) makes the trauma feel routine and “casual” at first.
• The final couplet breaks the stanza pattern, forcing the reader to confront the “bloody hands” in a moment of stark, inescapable clarity.
• Elite Link: The shift from “we” to “I” in the middle of the poem enacts the soldier’s realization that while the act was collective, the guilt is entirely his own.

Explore: Weir uses structure to enact the drift of grief, while Armitage uses structure to enact the trap of guilt—both use form to show that the past is never truly past.

Context Comparison (AO3 Power Move)

Elite Insight: Weir’s mother is trying to hold onto a ghost, while Armitage’s soldier is trying to get rid of one. Both poets argue that the true “remains” of war are the psychological scars left on those who survive.

Exam Sentence Starters

1. “While Weir explores the domestic, elegiac grief of a mother left behind, Armitage depicts the visceral, inescapable guilt of a soldier haunted by his actions…”
2. “Both poets utilize the metaphor of ‘remains’ to describe the psychological aftermath of war: Weir through the ‘war graves’ in the mother’s mind, and Armitage through the ‘blood-shadow’ on the street…”
3. “The ‘sellotape bandaged’ around the mother’s hand in Poppies serves as a poignant domestic parallel to the ‘bloody hands’ in Remains, as both represent the attempt to heal an invisible wound…”
4. “Weir’s use of shifting timeframes mirrors the non-linear nature of grief, whereas Armitage’s shift from ‘we’ to ‘I’ enacts the soldier’s transition from professional duty to personal trauma…”
5. “Contextually, Weir’s exploration of the female perspective of war parallels Armitage’s ‘witnessing’ of modern PTSD, as both poets expose the human cost hidden behind military rhetoric…”

FAQs

What is the best poem to compare with Poppies?

Remains is excellent for the aftermath of war. You can also compare it to Kamikaze for family impact, or War Photographer for the guilt of the witness.

What is the best poem to compare with Remains?

Poppies is perfect for grief and memory. Alternatively, compare it to Exposure for the “pity” of war, or Kamikaze for social vs psychological death.

What is the best theme linking Poppies and Remains?

The Psychological Aftermath of Conflict—specifically, how war leaves “remains” in the minds of both those who fight and those who wait at home.

What quotes should I compare between Poppies and Remains?

• “Individual war graves” (Poppies) vs. “His bloody life in my bloody hands” (Remains)—the public symbol vs. the private guilt.
• “I was brave” (Poppies) vs. “Probably armed, possibly not” (Remains)—the mother’s emotional courage vs. the soldier’s moral uncertainty.
• “Leaning against the wind” (Poppies) vs. “End of story, except not really” (Remains)—the lack of closure in both grief and guilt.

How do I compare structure in Poppies and Remains?

Weir uses free verse and shifting timeframes to reflect the disordered, non-linear nature of grief. Armitage uses conversational free verse and a final couplet to reflect the intrusive, inescapable nature of PTSD. Both use form to show that the trauma of war is ongoing.

What is a Grade 9 thesis for Poppies vs. Remains?

“While Weir explores the domestic, elegiac grief of a mother struggling with her son’s sacrifice, Armitage depicts the visceral, inescapable guilt of a soldier haunted by state-sanctioned killing, exposing how the ‘remains’ of war are psychological burdens that persist.”

Read Next

• Poppies Revision Sheet
• Remains Revision Sheet
• Power & Conflict Comparisons Hub